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JUST SO STORIES 



Just So Stories 

For Little Children 

By Rudyard Kipling 

Illustrated by the author 



PUBLISHED BY 

DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 

FOR 

REVIEW OF REVIEWS CO. 
1914 



Copyright, 1902, 1907, by Rudyard Kipling 



“Just So Stories,” have also been copy* 
righted separately as follows ; How the 
Whale Got His Tiny Throat. Copyright, 

1897, by the Century Company. How the 
Camel Got His Hump. Copyright, 1897, 
by the Century Company. How the Rhin- 
oceros Got His Wrinkly Skin. Copyright, 

1898, by the Century Company. The Ele- 
phant's Child. Copyright, 1900, by Rudyard 
Kipling ; Copyright, 1900, by the Curtis 
Publishing Company. The Beginning of the 
Armadillos. Copyright, 1900, by Rudyard 
Kipling. The Sing-Song of Old Man Kan- 
garoo. Copyright, 1900, by Rudyard Kip- 
ling. How the Leopard Got His Spots. 
Copyright, 1901, by Rudyard Kipling. How 
the First Letter Was Written. Copyright, 
1901, by Rudyard Kipling. The Cat that 
Walked by Himself. Copyright, 190a, by 
Rudyard Kipling. 


A* 


Published September, 1902 
Second impression October, 1902 
Third impression December, 1902 
Fourth impression December, 1902 
Fifth impression December, 1903 
Sixth impression September, 1904 
Seventh impression August, 1905 
Eighth impression December, 190$ 
Ninth impression August, 1906 
Tenth impression April, 1907 



New edition, uniform with “The 
Day’s Work "published November, 1907 



<7 c?r d 


CONTENTS 

^ PAGB 

How the Whale Got His Throat .... 3 
How the Camel Got His Hump .... 17 
How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin .... 31 

How the Leopard Got His Spots .... 45 

The Elephant’s Child 65 

The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo . . 87 
The Beginning of the Armadillos . . . .101 

How the First Letter was Written . . .123 

How the Alphabet was Made 145 

The Crab that Played with the Sea . . .171 

The Cat that Walked by Himself . . . .197 

The Butterfly that Stamped 225 












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JUST SO STORIES 












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HOW THE WHALE GOT HIS THROAT 


N THE SEA, once upon a time, O 
my Best Beloved, there was a 
Whale, and he ate fishes. He ate 
the starfish and the garfish, and the 
crab and the dab, and the plaice 
and the dace, and the skate and 
his mate, and the mackereel and 
the pickereel, and the really truly 
twirly-whirly eel. All the fishes 
he could find in all the sea he ate 
with his mouth — so! Till at last 
there was only one small fish left 
in all the sea, and he was a small 
’Stute Fish, and he swam a little 
behind the Whale’s right ear, so as to be out 
of harm’s way. Then the Whale stood up on 
his tail and said, ‘‘I ’m hungry.” And the 
small ’Stute Fish said in a small ’stute voice, 
‘‘Noble and generous Cetacean, have you 
ever tasted Man?” 

“No,” said the Whale. “What is it like?” 

3 



4 


JUST SO STORIES 


“Nice,” said the small ’Stute Fish. “Nice 
but nubbly.” 

“Then fetch me some,” said the Whale, 
and he made the sea froth up with his tail. 

“One at a time is enough,” said the ’Stute 
Fish. “ If you swim to latitude Fifty North, 
'longitude Forty West (that is magic), you will 
find, sitting on a raft, in the middle of the 
sea, with nothing on but a pair of blue canvas 
breeches, a pair of suspenders (you must not 
forget the suspenders, Best Beloved), and a 
jack-knife, one shipwrecked Mariner, who, it 
is only fair to tell you, is a man of infinite- 
resource-and-sagacity . ’ ’ 

So the Whale swam and swam to latitude 
Fifty North, longitude Forty West, as fast 
as he could swim, and on a raft, in the middle 
of the sea, with nothing to wear except a pair 
of blue canvas breeches, a pair of suspenders 
(you must particularly remember the sus- 
penders, Best Beloved), and a jack-knife, he 
found one single, solitary shipwrecked Mariner, 
trailing his toes in the water. (He had his 
mummy’s leave to paddle, or else he would 
never have done it, because he was a man of 
infinite-resource-and-sagacity.) 

Then the Whale opened his mouth back and 


JUST SO STORIES 


5 


back and back till it nearly touched his tail, 
and he swallowed the shipwrecked Mariner, 
and the raft he was sitting on, and his blue 
canvas breeches, and the suspenders (which 
you must not forget, and the jack-knife — 
He swallowed them all down into his warm, 
dark, inside cupboards, and then he smacked 
his lips — so, and turned round three times 
on his tail. 

But as soon as the Mariner, who was a man 
of infinite-resource-and-sagacity, found him- 
self truly inside the Whale’s warm, dark, 
inside cupboards, he stumped and he jumped 
and he thumped and he bumped, and he 
pranced and he danced, and he banged and 
he clanged, and he hit and he bit, and he 
leaped and he creeped, and he prowled and 
he howled, and he hopped and he dropped, 
and he cried and he sighed, and he crawled 
and he bawled, and he stepped and he 
lepped, and he danced hornpipes where he 
should n’t, and the Whale felt most un- 
happy indeed. (Have you forgotten the 
suspenders?) 

So he said to the ’Stute Fish, “This man is 
very nubbly, and besides he is making me 
hiccough. What shall I do?” 


This is the picture of the Whale swallowing the Mari- 
ner with his infinite-resource-and-sagacity, and the 
raft and the jack-knife and his suspenders, which you 
must not forget. The buttony-things are the Mari- 
ner’s suspenders, and you can see the knife close by 
them. He is sitting on the raft, but it has tilted up 
sideways, so you don’t see much of it. The whity 
thing by the Mariner’s left hand is a piece of wood 
that he was trying to row the raft with when the Whale 
came along. The piece of wood is called the jaws-of- 
a-gaff . The Mariner left it outside when he went in. 
The Whale’s name was Smiler, and the Mariner was 
called Mr. Henry Albert Bivvens, A.B. The little 
’Stute Fish is hiding under the Whale’s tummy, or 
else I would have drawn him. The reason that the 
sea looks so ooshy-skooshy is because the Whale is 
sucking it all into his mouth so as to suck in Mr. 
Henry Albert Bivvens and the raft and the jack- 
knife and the suspenders. You must never forget 
the suspenders. 


6 



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V 









































JUST SO STORIES 9 

“Tell him to come out,” said the ’Stute 
Fish. 

So the Whale called down his own throat 
to the shipwrecked Mariner, “Come out and 
behave yourself. I ’ve got the hiccoughs.” 

“Nay, nay!” said the Mariner. “Not so, 
but far otherwise. Take me to my natal- 
shore and the white-cliffs-of- Albion, and I ’ll 
think about it.” And he began to dance 
more than ever. 

“You had better take him home,” said the 
’Stute Fish to the Whale. “ I ought to have 
warned you that he is a man of infinite- 
resource-and-sagacity. ’ ’ 

So the Whale swam and swam and swam, 
with both flippers and his tail, as hard as he 
could for the hiccoughs; and at last he saw 
the Mariner’s natal-shore and the white-cliffs- 
of-Albion, and he rushed half-way up the 
beach, and opened his mouth wide and wide 
and wide, and said, “Change here for Win- 
chester, Ashuelot, Nashua, Keene, and sta- 
tions on the Fitchburg Road;” and just as 
he said “Fitch” the Mariner walked out of 
his mouth. But while the Whale had been 
swimming, the Mariner, who was indeed a 
person of infinite-resource-and-sagacity, had 


Here is the Whale looking for the little ’Stute Fish, 
who is hiding under the Door-sills of the Equator. 
The little ’Stute Fish’s name was Pingle. He is hid- 
ing among the roots of the big seaweed that grows in 
front of the Doors of the Equator. I have drawn the 
Doors of the Equator. They are shut. They are 
always kept shut, because a door ought always to be 
kept shut. The ropy-thing right across is the Equa- 
tor itself ; and the things that look like rocks are the 
two giants Moar and Koar, that keep the Equator in 
order. They drew the shadow-pictures on the doors 
of the Equator, and they carved all those twisty fishes 
under the Doors. The beaky-fish are called beaked 
Dolphins, and the other fish with the queer heads are. 
called Hammer-headed Sharks. The Whale never 
found the little ’Stute Fish till he got over his temper,, 
and then they became good friends again. 


IO 



51 




















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JUST SO STORIES 


*3 


taken his jack-knife and cut up the raft into 
a little square grating all running criss-cross, 
and he had tied it firm with his suspenders. 
( now you know why you were not to forget 
the suspenders !) , and he dragged that grating 
good and tight into the Whale’s throat, and 
there it stuck ! Then he recited the following 
Sloka , which, as you have not heard it, I will 
now proceed to relate — 

By means of a grating 

I have stopped your ating. 

For the Mariner he was also an Hi-ber-ni-an. 
And he stepped out on the shingle, and went 
home to his mother, who had given him leave 
to trail his toes in the water; and he married 
and lived happily ever afterward. So did the 
Whale. But from that day on, the grating 
in his throat, which he could neither cough 
up nor swallow down, prevented him eating 
anything except very, very small fish; and 
that is the reason why whales nowadays 
never eat men or boys or little girls. 

The small ’Stute Fish went and hid himself 
in the mud under the Door-sills of the Equator. 
He was afraid that the Whale might be angry 
with him. 


14 


JUST SO STORIES 


The Sailor took the jack-knife home. He 
was wearing the blue canvas breeches when 
he walked out on the shingle. The suspenders 
were left behind, you see, to tie the grating 
with; and that is the end of that tale. 


When the cabin port-holes are dark and green 
Because of the seas outside ; 

When the ship goes wop (with a wiggle between) 
And the steward falls into the soup-tureen, 

And the trunks begin to slide; 

When Nursey lies on the floor in a heap, 

And Mummy tells you to let her sleep, 

And you are n’t waked or washed or dressed, 
Why, then you will know (if you have n’t guessed)* 
You ’re “Fifty North and Forty West!” 









































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HOW THE CAMEL GOT HIS HUMP 


)W this is the next tale, 
and it tells how the Camel 
got his big hump. 

In the beginning of 
years, when the world was 
so new and all, and the 
Animals were just begin- 
ning to work for Man, there 
was a Camel, and he lived 
in the middle of a Howling Desert because he 
did not want to work; and besides, he was a 
Howler himself. So he ate sticks and thorns 
and tamarisks and milkweed and prickles, 
most ’scruciating idle; and when anybody 
spoke to him he said “ Humph !” Just 
“Humph!” and no more. 

Presently the Horse came to him on Mon- 
day morning, with a saddle on his back and 
a bit in his mouth, and said, '‘Camel, O 
Camel, come out and trot like the rest of 



1 8 JUST SO STORIES 

“Humph!” said the Camel and the Horse 
went away and told the Man. 

Presently the Dog came to him, with a stick 
in his mouth, and said, “Camel, 0 Camel, 
come and fetch and carry like the rest of us.” 

“Humph!” said the Camel; and the Dog 
went away and told the Man. 

Presently the Ox came to him, with the 
yoke on his neck and said, “ Camel, O Camel, 
come and plough like the rest of us.” 

“Humph!” said the Camel; and the Ox 
went away and told the Man. 

At the end of the day the Man called the 
Horse and the Dog and the Ox together, and 
•said, “Three, 0 Three, I ’m very sorry for 
you (with the world so new-and-all) ; but that 
Humph- thing in the Desert can’t work, or he 
would have been here by now, so I am going 
to leave him alone, and you must work 
double-time to make up for it.” 

That made the Three very angry (with the 
world so new-and-all) , and they held a palaver, 
and an indaba , and a punchayeU and a pow- 
wow on the edge of the Desert ; and the Camel 
came chewing milkweed 'most ’scruciating 
iile, and laughed at them. Then he said 

Humph!” and went away again. 


JUST SO STORIES 


19 


Presently there came along the Djinn in 
charge of All Deserts, rolling in a cloud of dust 
(Djinns always travel that way because it is 
Magic), and he stopped to palaver and pow- 
wow with the Three. 

“Djinn of All Deserts,” said the Horse, “is 
it right for any one to be idle, with the world 
so new-and-all?” 

“Certainly not,” said the Djinn. 

“Well,” said the Horse, “there’s a thing 
in the middle of your Howling Desert (and 
he’s a Howler himself) with a long neck and 
long legs, and he has n’t done a stroke of 
work since Monday morning. He won’t trot. ’ ’ 

“ Whew ! ” said the Djinn , whistling, “ that ’s 
my Camel, for all the gold in Arabia ! What 
does he say about it?” 

“He says * Humph!’ ” said the Dog; “and 
he won’t fetch and carry.” 

“ Does he say anything else?” 

“Only ‘Humph!’; and he won’t plough,” 
said the Ox. 

“ Very good,” said the Djinn. “ I ’ll humph 
him if you will kindly wait a minute.” 

The Djinn rolled himself up in his dust- 
cloak, and took a bearing across the desert, 
and found the Camel most ’scruciatingly 


This is the picture of the Djinn making the beginnings 
of the Magic that brought the Humph to the Camel. 
First he drew a line in the air with his finger, and it 
became solid; and then he made a cloud, and then he 
made an egg — you can see them both at the bottom 
of the picture — and then there was a magic pumpkin 
that turned into a big white flame. Then the Djinn 
took his magic fan and fanned that flame till the 
flame turned into a Magic by itself. It was a good 
Magic and a very kind Magic really, though it 
had to give the Camel a Humph because the Camel 
was lazy. The Djinn in charge of All Deserts 
was one of the nicest of the Djinns, so he would never 
do anything really unkind. 



fit 


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JUST SO STORIES 23 

idle, looking at his own reflection in a pool 
of water. 

“My long and bubbling friend,” said the 
Djinn, “what ’s this I hear of your doing no 
work, with the world so new-and-all ? ” 

“ Humph !” said the Camel. 

The Djinn sat down, with his chin in his 
hand, and began to think a Great Magic, 
while the Camel looked at his own reflection 
in the pool of water. 

“You ’ve given the Three extra work ever 
since Monday morning, all on account of your 
’scruciating idleness,” said the Djinn; and he 
w r ent on thinking Magics, with his chin in his 
hand. 

“ Humph!” said the Camel. 

“ I should n’t say that again if I were you,” 
said the Djinn; “you might say it once too 
often. Bubbles, I want you to work.” 

And the Camel said “Humph!” again; but 
no sooner had he said it than he saw his back, 
that he was so proud of, puffing up and puffing 
up into a great big lolloping humph. 

“Do you see that?” said the Djinn. 
“ That ’s your very own humph that you ’ve 
brought upon your very own self by not 
working. To-day is Thursday, and you ’ve 


Here is the picture of the Djinn in charge of All 
Deserts guiding the Magic with his magic fan. The 
camel is eating a twig of acacia, and he has just 
finished saying “humph” once too often (the Djinn 
told him he would), and so the Humph is coming. 
The long towelly-thing growing out of the thing like 
an onion is the Magic, and you can see the Humph on 
its shoulder. The Humph fits on the flat part of 
the Camel’s back. The Camel is too busy looking at 
his own beautiful self in the pool of water to know 
what is going to happen to him. 

Underneath the truly picture is a picture of the 
World-so-new-and-all. There are two smoky volca- 
noes in it, some other mountains and some stones and 
a lake and a black island and a twisty river and a lot 
of other things, as well as a Noah’s Ark. I could n’t 
draw all the deserts that the Djinn was in charge of, 
so I only drew one, but it is a most deserty desert. 



a 5 






JUST SO STORIES 


27 

done no work since Monday, when the* work 
began. Now you are going to work.” 

“How can I,” said the Camel, “with this 
humph on my back?” 

“That ’s made a-purpose,” said the Djinn, 
'‘all because you missed those three days. 
You will be able to work now for three days 
without eating, because you can live on your 
humph; and don’t you ever say I never did 
anything for you. Come out of the Desert, 
and go to the Three, and behave. Humph 
yourself!” 

And the Camel humphed himself, humph 
and all, and went away to join the Three. 
And from that day to this the Camel always 
wears a humph (we call it “hump” now, not 
to hurt his feelings) ; but he has never yet. 
caught up with the three days that he missed 
at the beginning of the world, and he has, 
never yet learned how to behave. 



The Camel’s hump is an ugly lump 
Which well you may see at the Zoo; 

But uglier yet is the hump we get 
From having too little to do. 

Kiddies and grown-ups too-oo-oo, 

If we have n’t enough to do-oo-oo, 

We get the hump — 

Cameelious hump — 

The hump that is black and blue! 

We climb out of bed with a frouzly head 
And a snarly-yarly voice. 

We shiver and scowl and we grunt and we growl 
At our bath and our boots and our toys; 

And there ought to be a comer for me 
(And I know there is one for you) 

When we get the hump — 

Cameelious hump — 

The hump that is black and blue! 

The cure for this ill is not to sit still, 

Or frowst with a book by the fire ; 

But to take a large hoe and a shovel also, 

And dig till you gently perspire. 

And then you will find that the sun and the wind 
And the Djinn of the Garden too, 

Have lifted the hump — 

The horrible hump — 

The hump that is black and blue! 

I get it as well as you-oo-oo — 

If I have n’t enough to do-oo-oo — 

We all get hump — 

Cameelious hump — 

Kiddies and grown ups-too! 

2 9 



HOW THE RHINOCEROS GOT 
HIS SKIN 


NCE upon a time, on an 
uninhabited island on the 
shores of the Red Sea, there 
lived a Parsee from whose 
hat the rays of the sun 
were reflected in more- 
than-oriental splendour. 
And the Parsee lived by 
the Red Sea with nothing 
but his hat and his knife and a cooking 
stove of the kind that you must par- 
ticularly never touch. And one day he took 
flour and water and currants and plums 
and sugar and things, and made himself one 
cake which was two feet across and three feet 
thick. It was indeed a Superior Comestible 
{that's magic), and he put it on the stove 
because he was allowed to cook on that stove, 
and he baked it and he baked it till it was all 
done brown and smelt most sentimental. 



3 2 


JUST SO STORIES 

But just as he was going to eat it there came 
down to the beach from the Altogether Unin- 
habited Interior one Rhinoceros with a horn 
on his nose, two piggy eyes, and few manners. 
In those days the Rhinoceros’s skin fitted him 
quite tight. There were no wrinkles in it any- 
where. He looked exactly like a Noah’s Ark 
Rhinoceros, but of course much bigger. All 
the same, he had no manners then, and he has 
no manners now, and he never will have any 
manners. He said, ‘‘How!” and the Parsee 
left that cake and climbed to the top of a 
palm tree with nothing on but his hat, from 
which the rays of the sun were always reflected 
in more-than-oriental splendour. And the 
Rhinoceros upset the oil-stove with his nose, 
and the cake rolled oh the sand, and he spiked 
that cake on the horn of his nose, and he ate 
it, and he went away, waving his tail, to the 
desolate and Exclusively Uninhabited Interior 
which abuts on the islands of Mazanderan, 
Socotra, and the Promontories of the Larger 
Equinox. Then the Parsee came down from 
his palm-tree and put the stove on its legs 
and recited the following Sloka , which, as 
you have not heard, I will now proceed to 
relate : 


JUST SO STORIES 


33 


Them that takes cakes 
Which the Parsee-man bakes 
Makes dreadful mistakes. 

And there was a great deal more in that than 
you would think. 

Because , five weeks later, there was a heat- 
wave in the Red Sea, and everybody took off 
all the clothes they had. The Parsee took 
off his hat ; but the Rhinoceros took off his 
skin and carried it over his shoulder as he 
came down to the beach to bathe. In those 
days it buttoned underneath with three but- 
tons and looked like a waterproof. He said 
nothing whatever about the Parsee’s cake, 
because he had eaten it all ; and he never had 
any manners, then, since, or henceforward. 
He waddled straight into the water and blew 
bubbles through his nose, leaving his skin on 
the beach. 

Presently the Parsee came by and found the 
skin, and he smiled one smile that ran all 
round his face two times. Then he danced 
three times round the skin and rubbed his 
hands. Then he went to his camp and filled 
his hat with cake-crumbs, for the Parsee never 
ate anything but cake, and never swept out 
his camp. He took that skin, and he shook 


This is the picture of the Parses beginning to eat his 
cake on the Uninhabited Island in the Red Sea on a 
very hot day; and of the Rhinoceros coming down 
from the Altogether Uninhabited Interior, which, as 
you can truthfully see, is all rocky. The Rhinoceros’s 
skin is quite smooth, and the three buttons that but- 
ton it up are underneath, so you can’t see them. The 
squiggly things on the Parsee’s hat are the rays of the 
sun reflected in more-than-oriental splendour, be- 
cause if I had drawn real rays they would have filled 
up all the picture. The cake has currants in it; and 
the wheel-thing lying on the sand in front belonged to 
one of Pharaoh’s chariots when he tried to cross the 
Red Sea. The Parsee found it, and kept it to play 
with. The Parsee’s name was Pestonjee Bomonjee, 
and the Rhinoceros was called Strorks, because he 
breathed through his mouth instead of his nose. I 
would n’t ask anything about the cooking-stove if 1 
were you. 


34 



35 












JUST SO STORIES 


37 


that skin, and he scrubbed that skin, and he 
rubbed that skin just as full of old, dry, stale, 
tickly cake-crumbs and some burned currants 
as ever it could possibly hold. Then he 
climbed to the top of his palm-tree and waited 
for the Rhinoceros to come out of the water 
and put it on. 

And the Rhinoceros did. He buttoned it 
up with the three buttons, and it tickled like 
cake-crumbs in bed. Then he wanted to 
scratch, but that made it worse; and then he 
lay down on the sands and rolled and rolled 
and rolled, and every time he rolled the cake 
crumbs tickled him worse and worse and worse. 
Then he ran to the palm-tree and rubbed 
and rubbed and rubbed himself against it. 
He rubbed so much and so hard that he rubbed 
his skin into a great fold over his shoulders, 
and another fold underneath, where the but- 
tons used to be (but he rubbed the buttons 
off), and he rubbed some more folds over his 
legs. And it spoiled his temper, but it did n't 
make the least difference to the cake-crumbs. 
They were inside his skin and they tickled. 
So he went home, very angry indeed and 
horribly scratchy; and from that day to this 
every rhinoceros has great folds in his skin 


This is the Parsee Pestonjee Bomonjee sitting in his 
palm-tree and watching the Rhinoceros Strorks bath- 
ing near the beach of the Altogether Uninhabited 
Island after Strorks had taken off his skin. The 
Parsee has put the cake-crumbs into the skin, and he 
is smiling to think how they will tickle Strorks when 
Strorks puts it on again. The skin is just under the 
rocks below the palm-tree in a cool place ; that is why 
you can’t see it. The Parsee is wearing a new more- 
than-oriental-splendour hat of the sort that Parsees 
wear; and he has a knife in his hand to cut his name 
on palm-trees. The black things on the islands out 
at sea are bits of ships that got wrecked going down 
the Red Sea; but all the passengers were saved and 
went home. 

The black thing in the water close to the shore is 
not a wreck at all. It is Strorks the Rhinoceros 
bathing wi t hout his skin . He was j ust as black under- 
neath his skin as he was outside. I would n’t ask 
anything about the cooking-stove if I were you. 


38 






















JUST SO STORIES 


4i 


and a very bad temper, all on account of the 
cake-crumbs inside. 

But the Parsee came down from his palm- 
tree, wearing his hat, from which the rays of 
the sun were reflected in more-than-oriental 
splendour, packed up his cooking-stove, and 
went away in the direction of Orotavo, Amyg- 
dala, the Upland Meadows of Anantarivo, 
and the Marshes of Sonaput. 




This Uninhabited Island 
Is off Cape Gardafui, 

By the Beaches of Socotra 
And the Pink Arabian Sea: 

But it ’s hot — too hot from Sues 
For the likes of you and me 
Ever to go 
In a P. and 0. 

And call on the Cake- Par see! 


43 


HOW THE LEOPARD GOT HIS SPOTS 


N THE DAYS when everybody started 
fair, Best Beloved, the Leopard lived 
in a place called the High Veldt. 
’Member it was n’t the Low Veldt, or 
the Bush Veldt, or the Sour Veldt, but 
the delusively bare, hot, shiny High 
Veldt, where there was sand and sandy- 
coloured rock and delusively tufts of 
sandy-yellowish grass. The Giraffe and the 
Zebra and the Eland and the Koodoo and 
the Hartebeest lived there; and they were 
delusively sandy- yellow-brownish all over; 
but the Leopard, he was the dclusivest 
sandiest-yellowish-brownest of them all — 
a greyish-yellowish catty-shaped kind of beast, 
and he matched the delusively yellowish- 
greyish-brownish colour of the High Veldt to 
one hair. This was very bad for the Giraffe 
and the Zebra and the rest of them; for he 
would lie down by a delusively yellowish- 
greyish-brownish stone or clump of grass, and 
45 



46 


JUST SO STORIES 

when the Giraffe or the Zebra or the Eland or 
the Koodoo or the Bush-Buck or the Bonte- 
Buck came by he would surprise them out of 
their jumpsome lives. He would indeed! 
And, also, there was an Ethiopian with bows 
and arrows (a ’sclusively greyish-brownish- 
yellowish man he was then), who lived on the 
High Veldt with the Leopard; and the two 
used to hunt together — the Ethiopian with 
his bows and arrows, and the Leopard delu- 
sively with his teeth and claws — till the 
Giraffe and the Eland and the Koodoo and 
the Quagga and all the rest of them did n’t 
know which way to jump, Best Beloved. 
They didn’t indeed! 

After a long time — things lived for ever 
so long in those days — they learned to avoid 
anything that looked like a Leopard or an 
Ethiopian ; and bit by bit — the Giraffe began 
it, because his legs were the longest — they 
went away from the High Veldt. They 
scuttled for days and days and days till they 
came to a great forest, ’sclusively full of trees 
and bushes and stripy, speckly, patchy- 
blatchy shadows, and there they hid: and 
after another long time, what with standing 
half in the shade and half out of it, and what 


JUST SO STORIES 


47 


with the slippery-slidy shadows of the trees 
falling on them, the Giraffe grew blotchy, and 
the Zebra grew stripy, and the Eland and the 
Koodoo grew darker, with little wavy grey 
lines on their backs like bark on a tree trunk; 
and so, though you could hear them and smell 
them, you could very seldom see them, and 
then only when you knew precisely where to 
look. They had a beautiful time in the 
’sclusively speckly-spickly shadows of the 
forest, while the Leopard and the Ethiopian 
ran about over the ’sclusively greyish- 
yellowish-reddish High Veldt outside, wonder- 
ing where all their breakfasts and their dinners 
and their teas had gone. At last they were so 
hungry that they ate rats and beetles and rock- 
rabbits, the Leopard and the Ethiopian, and 
then they had the Big Tummy-ache, both 
together; and then they met Baviaan — the 
dog-headed, barking Baboon, who is Quite the 
Wisest Animal in All South Africa. 

Said Leopard to Baviaan (and it was a very 
hot day), “Where has all the game gone?” 

And Baviaan winked. He knew. 

Said the Ethiopian to Baviaan, “Can you 
tell me the present habitat of the aboriginal 
Fauna?” (That meant just the same thing. 


This is Wise Baviaan, the dog-headed Baboon, Who 
is Quite the Wisest Animal in All South Africa. I 
have drawn him from a statue that I made up out of 
my own head, and I have written his name on his belt 
and on his shoulder and on the thing he is sitting on. 
I have written it in what is not called Coptic and 
Hieroglyphic and Cuneiformic and Bengalic and 
Burmic and Hebric, all because he is so wise. He 
is not beautiful, but he is very wise; and I should 
like to paint him with paint-box colours, but I am 
not allowed. The umbrella-ish thing about his head 
is his Conventional Mane, 


48 





JUST SO STORIES 51 

but the Ethiopian always used long words. 
He was a grown-up.) 

And Baviaan winked. He knew. 

Then said Baviaan, “The game has gone 
into other spots; and my advice to you, 
Leopard, is to go into other spots as soon as 
you can.” 

And the Ethiopian said, “That is all very 
fine, but I wish to know whither the aboriginal 
Fauna has migrated.” 

Then said Baviaan, “The aboriginal Fauna 
has joined the aboriginal Flora because it was 
high time for a change ; and my advice to you, 
Ethiopian, is to change as soon as you can.” 

That puzzled the Leopard and the Ethio- 
pian, but they set off to look for the aboriginal 
Flora, and presently, after ever so many days, 
they saw a great, high, tall forest full of tree 
trunks all delusively speckled and sprottled 
and spottled, dotted and splashed and slashed 
and hatched and cross-hatched with shadows. 
(Say that quickly aloud, and you will see how 
very shadowy the forest must have been.) 

“What is this,” said the Leopard, “that is 
so delusively dark, and yet so full of little 
pieces of light?” 

“I don’t know,” said the Ethiopian, “but 


52 


JUST SO STORIES 

it ought to be the aboriginal Flora. I can 
smell Giraffe, and I can hear Giraffe, but I 
can’t see Giraffe/ ’ 

“That’s curious,” said the Leopard. “I 
suppose it is because we have just come in out 
of the sunshine. I can smell Zebra, and I can 
hear Zebra, but I can’t see Zebra.” 

“Wait a bit,” said the Ethiopian. “It ’s a 
long time since we ’ve hunted ’em. Perhaps 
we ’ve forgotten what they were like.” 

“ Fiddle ! ” said the Leopard. “ I remember 
them perfectly on the High Veldt, especially 
their marrow-bones. Giraffe is about seven- 
teen feet high, of a ’sclusively fulvous golden- 
yellow from head to heel ; and Zebra is about 
four and a half feet high, of a ’sclusively grey- 
fawn colour from head to heel.” 

“Umm,” said the Ethiopian, looking into 
the speckly-spickly shadows of the aboriginal 
Flora-forest. “Then they ought to show up 
in this dark place like ripe bananas in a smoke- 
house.” 

But they did n’t. The Leopard and the 
Ethiopian hunted all day; and though they 
could smell them and hear them, they never 
saw one of them. 

“For goodness’ sake,” said the Leopard 


JUST SO STORIES 53 

at tea-time, “let us wait till it gets dark. 
This daylight hunting is a perfect scandal.” 

So they waited till dark, and then the Leo- 
pard heard something breathing sniffily in 
the starlight that fell all stripy through the 
branches, and he jumped at the noise, and it 
smelt like Zebra, and it felt like Zebra, and 
when he knocked it down it kicked like Zebra, 
but he couldn’t see it. So he said, “Be 
quiet, O you person without any form. I am 
going to sit on your head till morning, because 
there is something about you that I don’t 
understand.” 

Presently he heard a grunt and a crash and 
a scramble, and the Ethiopian called out, 
“ I ’ve caught a thing that I can’t see. It 
smells like Giraffe, and it kicks like Giraffe, 
but it has n’t any form.” 

“Don’t you trust it,” said the Leopard. 
“ Sit on its head till the morning — same as 
me. They have n’t any form — any of ’em.” 

So they sat down on them hard till bright 
morning-time, and then Leopard said, “What 
have you at your end of the table, Brother? ” 

The Ethiopian scratched his head and said, 
u It ought to be ’sclusively a rich fulvous 


54 


JUST SO STORIES 

orange-tawny from head to heel, and it ought 
to be Giraffe; but it is covered all over with 
chestnut blotches. What have you at your 
end of the table, Brother ?” 

And the Leopard scratched his head and 
said, “It ought to be ’sclusively a delicate 
greyish-fawn, and it ought to be Zebra; but 
it is covered all over with black and purple 
stripes. What in the world have you been 
doing to yourself, Zebra? Don’t you know 
that if you were on the High Veldt I could 
see you ten miles off? You have n’t any 
form.” 

“Yes,” said the Zebra, “but this isn’t the 
High Veldt. Can’t you see? ” 

“I can now,” said the Leopard. “But I 
couldn’t all yesterday. How is it done?” 

“Let us up,” said the Zebra, “and we will 
show you.” 

They let the Zebra and the Giraffe get up; 
and Zebra moved away to some little thorn- 
bushes where the sunlight fell all stripy, and 
Giraffe moved off to some tallish trees where 
the shadows fell all blotchy. 

“Now watch,” said the Zebra and the 
Giraffe. “This is the way it ’s done. One — 
two — three! And where ’s vour breakfast?” 


JUST SO STORIES 


55 


Leopard stared, and Ethiopian stared, but 
all they could see were stripy shadows and 
blotched shadows in the forest, but never a 
sign of Zebra and Giraffe. They had just 
walked off and hidden themselves in the 
shadowy forest. 

“Hi! Hi!” said the Ethiopian. “That ’s a 
trick worth learning. Take a lesson by it, 
Leopard. You show up in this dark place 
like a bar of soap in a coal-scuttle.” 

“Ho! Ho!” said the Leopard. “Would it 
surprise you very much to know that you 
show up in this dark place like a mustard- 
plaster on a sack of coals?” 

Well, calling names won’t catch dinner, 
said the Ethiopian. “The long and the little 
of it is that we don’t match our backgrounds. 
I ’m going to take Baviaan’s advice. He told 
me I ought to change; and as I ’ve nothing 
to change except my skin I ’m going to change 
that.” 

“What to?” said the Leopard, tremen- 
dously excited. 

“To a nice working blackish-brownish 
colour, with a little purple in it, and touches 
of slaty-blue. It will be the very thing for 
hiding in hollows and behind trees.” 


,0 


JUST SO STORIES 

So he changed his skin then and there, and 
the Leopard was more excited than ever; he 
had never seen a man change his skin before. 

“But what about me?” he said, when the 
Ethiopian had worked his last little finger 
into his fine new black skin. 

“ You take Baviaan’s advice too. He told 
you to go into spots.” 

“So I did,” said the Leopard. “I went 
into other spots as fast as I could. I went 
into this spot with you, and a lot of good it has 
done me.” 

“ Oh,” said the Ethiopian, “ Baviaan did n’t 
mean spots in South Africa. He meant spots 
on your skin.” 

“What ’s the use of that?” said the Leo- 
pard. 

“Think of Giraffe,” said the Ethiopian. 
“Or if you prefer stripes, think of Zebra. 
They find their spots and stripes give them 
per-fect satisfaction.” 

“Umm,” said the Leopard. “I wouldn't 
look like Zebra — not for ever so.” 

“Well, make up your mind,” said the 
Ethiopian, “because I ’d hate to go hunting 
without you, but I must if you insist on look- 
ing like a sun-flower against a tarred fence.” 


JUST SO STORIES 


57 


“ I ’ll take spots, then,” said the Leopard; 
“but don’t make ’em too vulgar-big. I 
would n’t look like Giraffe — not for ever so.” 

“ I ’ll make ’em with the tips of my fingers,” 
said the Ethiopian. “ There ’s plenty of black 
left on my skin still. Stand over!” 

Then the Ethiopian put his five fingers 
close together (there was plenty of black left 
on his new skin still) and pressed them all over 
the Leopard, and wherever the five fingers 
touched they left five little black marks, all 
close together. You can see them on any 
Leopard’s skin you like, Best Beloved. Some- 
times the fingers slipped and the marks got a 
little blurred; but if you look closely at any 
Leopard now you will see that there are 
always five spots — off five fat black 
finger-tips. 

“Now you are a beauty!” said the Ethio- 
pian. “You can lie out on the bare ground 
and look like a heap of pebbles. You can lie 
out on the naked rocks and look like a piece of 
pudding-stone. You can lie out on a leafy 
branch and look like sunshine sifting through 
the leaves; and you can lie right across the 
centre of a path and look like nothing in 
particular. Think of that and purr!” 


This is the picture of the Leopard and the Ethiopian 
after they had taken Wise Baviaan’s advice and the 
Leopard had gone into other spots and the Ethiopian 
had changed his skin. The Ethiopian was really a 
negro, and so his name was Sambo. The Leopard 
was called Spots, and he has been called Spots ever 
since. They are out hunting in the spickly-speckly 
forest, and they are looking for Mr. One -Two -Three- 
Where ’s-your-Breakfast. If you look a little you 
will see Mr. One-Two-Three not far away. The 
Ethiopian has hidden behind a splotchy-blotchy tree 
because it matches his skin, and the Leopard is lying 
besides a spickly-speckly bank of stones because it 
matches his spots. Mr. One-Two-Three-Where ’s- 
your-Breakfast is standing up eating leaves from a 
tall tree. This is really a puzzle-picture like “Find 
the Cat.” f 



A 


59 





JUST SO STORIES 


61 


“But if I ’m all this,” said the Leopard, 
“why did n’t you go spotty too?” 

“Oh, plain black ’s best for a nigger,” said 
the Ethiopian. “Now come along and we ’ll 
see if we can’t get even with Mr. One-Two- 
Three- Where’s-your-Breakfast I ” 

So they went away and lived happily ever 
afterward, Best Beloved. That is all. 

Oh, now and then you will hear grown-ups 
say, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or 
the Leopard his spots?” I don’t think even 
grown-ups would keep on saying such a silly 
thing if the Leopard and the Ethiopian had n’t 
done it once — do you? But they will never 
do it again, Best Beloved. They are quite 
contented as they are. 


I am the Most Wise Baviaan, saying in most wise 
tones, 

“Let us melt into the landscape — just us two by 
our lones.” 

People have come — in a carriage — calling. But 
Mummy is there. . . . 

Yes, I can go if you take me — Nurse says she don’t 
care. 

Let ’s go up to the pig-sties and sit on the farmyard 
rails! 

Let ’s say things to the bunnies, and watch ’em skitter 
their tails! 

Let ’s — oh, anything , daddy, so long as it ’s you and 
me, 

And going truly exploring, and not being in till tea! 

Here ’s your boots (I ’ve brought ’em), and here ’s 
your cap and stick. 

And here ’s your pipe and tobacco. Oh, come along 
out of it — quick. 


*3 












THE ELEPHANT’S CHILD 


THE HIGH and Far- 
Off times the Elephant, 
O Best Beloved, had no 
trunk. He had only a 
blackish, bulgy nose, as 
big as a boot, that he 
could wriggle about from 
side to side; but he 
could n’t pick up things with it. But there 
was one Elephant — a new Elephant — an 
Elephant’s Child — who was full of ’satiable 
curtiosity, and that means he asked ever so 
many questions. And he lived in Africa, and 
he filled all Africa with his ’satiable curtiosi- 
ties. He asked his tall aunt, the Ostrich, why 
her tail-feathers grew just so, and his tall 
aunt the Ostrich spanked him with her hard, 
hard claw. He asked his tall uncle, the 
Giraffe, what made his skin spotty, and his 
tall uncle, the Giraffe, spanked him with his 
hard, hard hoof. And still he was full of 
6* 



66 


JUST SO STORIES 

’satiable curtiosity ! He asked his broad 
aunt, the Hippopotamus, why her eyes were 
red, and his broad aunt, the Hippopotamus, 
spanked him with her broad, broad hoof ; and 
he asked his hairy uncle, the Baboon, why 
melons tasted just so, and his hairy uncle, 
the Baboon, spanked him with his hairy, 
hairy paw. And still he was full of ’satiable 
curtiosity ! He asked questions about every- 
thing that he saw, or heard, or felt, or smelt, 
or touched, and all his uncles and his aunts 
spanked him. And still he was full of ’satiable 
curtiosity ! 

One fine morning in the middle of the 
Precession of the Equinoxes this ’satiable 
Elephant’s Child asked a new fine question 
that he had never asked before. He asked, 
4 4 What does the Crocodile have for dinner?” 
Then everybody said, “Hush!” in a loud 
and dretful tone, and they spanked him 
immediately and directly, without stopping, 
for a long time. 

By and by, when that was finished, he came 
upon Kolokolo Bird sitting in the middle of a 
wait-a-bit thorn-bush, and he said, 44 My 
father has spanked me, and my mother has 
spanked me; all my aunts and uncles have 


6 7 


JUST SO STORIES 

spanked me for my 'satiable curtiosity; and 
still I want to know what the Crocodile has 
for dinner!" 

Then Kolokolo Bird said, with a mournful 
cry, ‘‘Go to the banks of the great grey- 
green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about 
with fever-trees, and find out." 

That very next morning, when there was 
nothing left of the Equinoxes, because the 
Precession had preceded according to prece- 
dent, this 'satiable Elephant’s Child took a 
hundred pounds of bananas (the little short 
red kind), and a hundred pounds of sugar- 
cane (the long purple kind), and seventeen 
melons (the greeny-crackly kind), and said 
to all his dear families, “ Good-bye. I am 
going to the great grey-green, greasy Lim- 
popo River, all set about with fever-trees, 
to find out what the Crocodile has for 
dinner." And they all spanked him once 
more for luck, though he asked them most 
politely to stop. 

Then he went away, a little warm, but not 
at all astonished, eating melons, and throwing 
the rind about, because he could not pick it up. 

He went from Graham’s Town to Kim- 
berley, and from Kimberley to Khama’s 


68 


JUST SO STORIES 

Country, and from Khama’s Country he went 
east by north, eating melons all the time, till 
at last he came to the banks of the great grey- 
green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about 
with fever-trees, precisely as Kolokolo Bird 
had said. 

Now you must know and understand, O 
Best Beloved, that till that very week, and 
day, and hour, and minute, this ’satiable 
Elephant’s Child had never seen a Crocodile, 
and did not know what one was like. It was 
all his ’satiable curtiosity. 

The first thing that he found was a Bi- 
Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake curled round a 
rock. 

“ ’Scuse me,” said the Elephant’s Child 
most politely, “but have you seen such a 
thing as a Crocodile in these promiscuous 
parts?” 

“Have I seen a Crocodile?” said the Bi- 
Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake, in a voice of 
dretful scorn. ‘ ‘ What will you ask me next ? ’ ’ 

“ ’Scuse me,” said the Elephant’s Child, 
“ but could you kindly tell me what he has for 
dinner?” 

Then the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake 
uncoiled himself very quickly from the rock, 


JUST SO STORIES 69 

and spanked the Elephant’s Child with his 
scalesome, flailsome tail. 

'‘That is odd,” said the Elephant’s Child, 
“because my father and my mother, and my 
uncle and my aunt, not to mention my other 
aunt, the Hippopotamus, and my other uncle, 
the Baboon, have all spanked me for my 
’satiable curtiosity — and I suppose this is 
the same thing.” 

So he said good-bye very politely to the 
Bi-Coloured-Python- Rock-Snake, and helped 
to coil him up on the rock again, and went on, 
a little warm, but not at all astonished, eating 
melons, and throwing the rind about, because 
he could not pick it up, till he trod on what 
he thought was a log of wood at the very 
edge of the great grey-green, greasy Lim- 
popo River, all set about with fever-trees. 

But it was really the Crocodile, 0 Best 
Beloved, and the Crocodile winked one eye — 
like this! 

“ ’Scuse me,” said the Elephant’s Child 
most politely, “but do you happen to have 
seen a Crocodile in these promiscuous parts ? ” 

Then the Crocodile winked the other eye, 
and lifted half his tail out of the mud; and 
the Elephant’s Child stepped back most 


7 o JUST SO STORIES 

politely, because he did not wish to be spanked 
again. 

“Come hither, Little One,” said the Croco- 
dile. “ Why do you ask such things? ” 

“ ’Scuse me,” said the Elephant’s Child 
most politely, “but my father has spanked 
me, my mother has spanked me, not to men- 
tion my tall aunt, the Ostrich, and my tall 
uncle, the Giraffe, who can kick ever so hard, 
as well as my broad aunt, the Hippopotamus, 
and my hairy uncle, the Baboon, and includ- 
ing the Bi-Coloured-Python- Rock-Snake, with 
the scalesome, flailsome tail, just up the bank, 
who spanks harder than any of them; and so> 
if it ’s quite all the same to you, I don’t want 
to be spanked any more.” 

“Come hither, Little One,” said the Croco- 
dile, “for I am the Crocodile,” and he wept 
crocodile-tears to show it was quite true. 

Then the Elephant’s Child grew all breath- 
less, and panted, and kneeled down on the 
bank and said, “You are the very person I 
have been looking for all these long days. 
Will you please tell me what you have for 
dinner?” 

“Come hither, Little One,” said the Croco- 
dile, “and I ’ll whisper.” 


JUST SO STORIES 


7i 


Then the Elephant’s Child put his head 
down close to the Crocodile’s musky, tusky 
mouth, and the Crocodile caught him by his 
little nose, which up to that very week, day, 
hour, and minute, had been no bigger than a 
boot, though much more useful. 

“ I think, said the Crocodile — and he said 
it between his teeth, like this — “I think to- 
day I will begin with Elephant’s Child!” 

At this, O Best Beloved, the Elephant’s 
Child was much annoyed, and he said, speak- 
ing through his nose, like this, “Led go! 
You are hurtig be ! ” 

Then the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake 
scuffled down from the bank and said, “My 
young friend, if you do not now, immediately 
and instantly, pull as hard as ever you can, it 
is my opinion that your acquaintance in the 
large-pattern leather ulster” (and by this he 
meant the Crocodile) “will jerk you into 
yonder limpid stream before you can say Jack 
Robinson.” 

This is the way Bi-Coloured-Python- Rock- 
Snakes always talk. 

Then the Elephant’s Child sat back on his 
little haunches, and pulled, and pulled, and 
pulled, and his nose began to stretch. And 


7 2 


JUST SO STORIES 


the Crocodile floundered into the water 
making it all creamy with great sweeps of 
his tail, and he pulled, and pulled, and 
pulled. 

And the Elephant’s Child’s nose kept on 
stretching; and the Elephant’s Child spread 
all his little four legs and pulled, and 
pulled, and pulled, and his nose kept on 
stretching ; and the Crocodile threshed his tail 
like an oar, and he pulled, and pulled, and 
pulled, and at each pull the Elephant’s Child’s 
nose grew longer and longer — and it hurt 
him hijjus ! 

Then the Elephant’s Child felt his legs slip- 
ping, and he said through his nose, which was 
now nearly five feet long, “This is too butch 
for be!” 

Then the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake 
came down from the bank, and knotted him- 
self in a double-clove-hitch round the Ele- 
phant’s Child’s hind legs, and said, “Rash 
and inexperienced traveller, we will now 
seriously devote ourselves to a little high 
tension, because if we do not, it is my im- 
pression that yonder self-propelling man-of- 
war with the armour-plated upper deck” 
(and by this, O Best Beloved, he meant the 


JUST SO STORIES 


73 

Crocodile), “will permanently vitiate your 
future career. ” 

That is the way all Bi-Coloured-Python- 
Rock-Snakes always talk. 

So he pulled, and the Elephant’s Child 
pulled, and the Crocodile pulled; but the 
Elephant’s Child and the Bi-Coloured-Python- 
Rock-Snake pulled hardest; and at last the 
Crocodile let go of the Elephant’s Child’s 
nose with a plop that you could hear all up 
and down the Limpopo. 

Then the Elephant’s Child sat down most 
hard and sudden; but first he was careful to 
say “ Thank you” to the Bi-Coloured-Python- 
Rock-Snake; and next he was kind to his 
poor pulled nose, and wrapped it all up in cool 
banana leaves, and hung it in the great grey- 
green, greasy Limpopo to cool. 

“What are you doing that for?” said the 
Bi-Coloured-Python- Rock-Snake. 

“ ’Scuse me,” said the Elephant’s Child, 
“but my nose is badly out of shape, and I am 
waiting for it to shrink.” 

“Then you will have to wait a long time,” 
said the B i-Coloured-Python-PvOck-Snake. 
“ Some people do not know what is good for 
them.” 


This is the Elephant’s Child having his nose pulled 
by the Crocodile. He is much surprised and aston- 
ished and hurt, and he is talking through his nose and 
saying, “Led go! You are hurtig be! ” He is pull- 
ing very hard, and so is the Crocodile; but the Bi> 
Coloured- Python- Rock-Snake is hurrying through 
the water to help the Elephant’s Child. All that 
black stuff is the banks of the great grey-green, greasy 
Limpopo River (but I am not allowed to paint these 
pictures), and the bottly-tree with the twisty roots 
and the eight leaves is one of the fever trees that grow 
there. 

Underneath the truly picture are shadows of African 
animals walking into an African ark. There are two 
lions, two ostriches, two oxen, two camels, two sheep, 
and two other things that look like rats, but I think 
they are rock-rabbits. They don’t mean anything. 
I put them in because I thought they looked pretty. 
They would look very fine if I were allowed to paint 
them. 


74 



V 


75 




JUST SO STORIES 


77 


The Elephant’s Child sat there for three 
days waiting for his nose to shrink. But it 
never grew any shorter, and, besides, it made 
him squint. For, O Best Beloved, you will 
see and understand that the Crocodile had 
pulled it out into a really truly trunk same as 
all Elephants have to-day. 

At the end of the third day a fly came and 
stung him on the shoulder, and before he knew 
what he was doing he lifted up his trunk and 
hit that fly dead with the end of it. 

“ ’Vantage number one!” said the Bi- 
Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake. “You couldn ’t 
have done that with a mere-smear nose. 
Try and eat a little now.” 

Before he thought what he was doing the 
Elephant’s Child put out his trunk and plucked 
a large bundle of grass, dusted it clean against 
his fore-legs, and stuffed it into his own mouth. 

“ ’Vantage number two!” said the Bi- 
Coloured-Python- Rock-Snake. “ You could n’t 
have done that with a mere-smear nose. 
Don’t you think the sun is very hot here?” 

“It is,” said the Elephant’s Child, and 
before he thought what he was doing he 
schlooped up a schloop of mud from the banks 
of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo, and 


7 8 


JUST SO STORIES 

slapped it on his head, where it made a cool 
schloopy-sloshy mud-cap all trickly behind 
his ears. 

“ ’Vantage number three!” said the Bi- 
Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake. “You couldn f t 
have done that with a mere-smear nose. 
Now how do you feel about being spanked 
again?” 

“ ’Scuse me,” said the Elephant’s Child, 
“but I should not like it at all.” 

“ How would you like to spank somebody?” 
said the Bi-Coloured-Python- Rock-Snake. 

“I should like it very much indeed,” said 
the Elephant’s Child. 

“ Well,” said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock- 
Snake, “ you will find that new nose of yours 
very useful to spank people with.” 

“Thank you,” said the Elephant’s Child* 
“I ’ll remember that; and now I think I ’ll 
go home to all my dear families and try.” 

So the Elephant’s Child went home across 
Africa frisking and whisking his trunk. When 
he wanted fruit to eat he pulled fruit down 
from a tree, instead of waiting for it to fall as 
he used to do. When he wanted grass he 
plucked grass up from the ground, instead of 
going on his knees as he used to do. When 


JUST SO STORIES 


79 


the flies bit him he broke off the branch of a 
tree and used it as a fly- whisk; and he made 
himself a new, cool, slushy-squshy mud-cap 
whenever the sun was hot. When he felt 
lonely walking through Africa he sang to him- 
self down his trunk, and the noise was louder 
than several brass bands. He went especially 
out of his way to find a broad Hippopotamus 
(she was no relation of his), and he spanked 
her very hard, to make sure that the Bi- 
Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake had spoken the 
truth about his new trunk. The rest of the 
time he picked up the melon rinds that he had 
dropped on his way to the Limpopo — for he 
was a Tidy Pachyderm. 

One dark evening he came back to all his. 
dear families, and he coiled up his trunk and 
said, “How do you do?” They were very 
glad to see him, and immediately said, “ Come 
here and be spanked for your ’satiable 
curtiosity.” 

“Pooh,” said the Elephant’s Child. “I 
don’t think you peoples know anything about 
spanking; but I do, and I ’ll show you.” 

Then he uncurled his trunk and knocked 
two of his dear brothers head over heels. 

“0 Bananas!” said they, “where did you 


This is just a picture of the Elephant’s Child going 
to pull bananas off a banana-tree after he had got 
his fine, new long trunk. I don’t think it is a very 
nice picture; but I couldn’t make it any better, 
because elephants and bananas are hard to draw. 
The streaky things behind the Elephant’s Child mean 
squoggy, marshy country somewhere in Africa. The 
Elephant’s Child made most of his mud cakes out of 
the mud that he found there. I think it would look 
better if you painted the banana-tree green and the 
Elephant’s Child red 


So 




















































































JUST SO STORIES 83 

learn that trick, and what have you done to 
your nose?” 

“ I got a new one from the Crocodile on the 
banks of the great grey-green, greasy Lim- 
popo River,” said the Elephant’s Child. “I 
asked him what he had for dinner, and he 
gave me this to keep.” 

“It looks very ugly,” said his hairy uncle, 
the Baboon. 

“ It does,” said the Elephant’s Child. “ But 
it ’s very useful,” and he picked up his hairy 
uncle, the Baboon, by one hairy leg, and hove 
him into a hornet’s nest. 

Then that bad Elephant’s Child spanked 
all his dear families for a long time, till they 
were very warm and greatly astonished. He 
pulled out his tall Ostrich aunt’s tail-feathers; 
and he caught his tall uncle, the Giraffe, by 
the hindleg, and dragged him through a thorn- 
bush; and he shouted at his broad aunt, the 
Hippopotamus, and blew bubbles into her ear 
when she was sleeping in the water after meals ; 
but he never let any one touch Kolokolo Bird. 

At last things grew so exciting that his dear 
families went off one by one in a hurry to the 
banks of the great grey-green, greasy Lim- 
popo River, all set about with fever-trees, to 


84 


JUST SO STORIES 

borrow new noses from the Crocodile. When 
they came back nobody spanked anybody any 
more; and ever since that day, O Best Be- 
loved, all the Elephants you will ever see, 
besides all those that you won't, have trunks 
precisely like the trunk of the 'satiable Ele- 
phant’s Child. 


I keep six honest serving-men; 

(They taught me all I knew) 

Their names are What and Where and When 
And How and Where and Who. 

I send them over land and sea, 

I send them east and west ; 

But after they have worked for me, 

I give them all a rest. 

I let them rest from nine till five, 

For I am busy then, 

As well as breakfast, lunch, and tea, 

For they are hungry men: 

But different folk have different views, 

I know a person small — 

She keeps ten million serving-men, 

Who get no rest at all ! 

She sends ’em abroad on her own affairs 
From the second she opens her eyes — 

One million Hows, two million Wheres, 

And seven million Whys! 















































THE SING-SONG OF OLD MAN 
KANGAROO 



OT always was the Kan- 
garoo as now we do 
behold him, but a Dif- 
ferent Animal with four 
short legs. He was 
grey and he was woolly, 
and his pride was inor- 
dinate: he danced on 
an outcrop in the middle of Australia, and he 
went to the Little God Nqa. 

He went to Nqa at six before breakfast, 
saying, “Make me different from all other 
animals by five this afternoon.’ 1 

Up jumped Nqa from his seat on the sand- 
flat and shouted, “Go away!” 

He was grey and he was woolly, and his 
pride was inordinate: he danced on a rock- 
ledge in the middle of Australia, and he went 
to the Middle God Nquing. 

S7 


88 


JUST SO STORIES 

He went to Nquing at eight after break- 
fast, saying, “ Make me different from all other 
animals; make me, also, wonderfully popular 
by five this afternoon.” 

Up jumped Nquing from his burrow in the 
spinifex and shouted, “Go away!” 

He was grey and he was woolly, and his 
pride was inordinate: he danced on a sand- 
bank in the middle of Australia, and he went 
to the Big God Nqong. 

He went to Nqong at ten before dinner- 
time, saying, “Make me different from 
all other animals; make me popular and 
wonderfully run after by five this after- 
noon.” 

Up jumped Nqong from his bath in the 
salt-pan and shouted, “Yes, I will!” 

Nqong called Dingo — Yellow-Dog Dingo 
— always hungry, dusty in the sunshine, and 
showed him Kangaroo. Nqong said, “ Dingo! 
Wake up, Dingo ! Do you see that gentleman 
dancing on an ashpit? He wants to be popu- 
lar and very truly run after. Dingo, make 
him so!” 

Up jumped Dingo — Yellow-Dog Dingo — 
and said, “What, that cat-rabbit?” 

Off ran Dingo — Yellow-Dog Dingo — 


JUST SO STORIES 89 

always hungry, grinning like a coal-scuttle — 
ran after Kangaroo. 

Off went the proud Kangaroo on his four 
little legs like a bunny. 

This, O Beloved of mine, ends the first part 
of the tale! 

He ran through the desert; he ran through 
the mountains ; he ran through the salt-pans ; 
he ran through the reed-beds ; he ran through 
the blue gums; he ran through the spinifex; 
he ran till his front legs ached. 

He had to! 

Still ran Dingo — Yellow-Dog Dingo — al- 
ways hungry, grinning like a rat-trap, never 
getting nearer, never getting farther — ran 
after Kangaroo. 

He had to ! 

Still ran Kangaroo — Old Man Kangaroo. 
He ran through the ti- trees; he ran through 
the mulga; he ran through the long grass; he 
ran through the short grass; he ran through 
the Tropics of Capricorn and Cancer; he ran 
till his hind legs ached. 

He had to! 

Still ran Dingo — Yellow-Dog Dingo — 
hungrier and hungrier, grinning like a horse- 
collar, never getting nearer, never getting 


This is a picture of Old Man Kangaroo when he was 
the Different Animal with four short legs. I have 
drawn him grey and woolly, and you can see that he 
is very proud because he has a wreath of flowers in his 
hair. He is dancing on an outcrop (that means a ledge 
of rock) in the middle of Australia at six o’clock 
before breakfast. You can see that it is six o’clock, 
because the sun is just getting up. The thing with 
the ears and the open mouth is Little God Nqa. Nqa 
is very much surprised, because he has never seen a 
Kangaroo dance like that before. Little God Nqa 
is just saying, “Go away,’’ but the Kangaroo is so 
busy dancing that he has not heard him yet. 

The Kangaroo has n’t any real name except Boomerc 
He lost it because he was so proud. 


9 ° 







91 





JUST SO STORIES 93 

farther; and they came to the Wollgong 
River. 

Now, there was n’t any bridge, and there 
was n’t any ferry-boat, and Kangaroo did n’t 
know how to get over; so he stood on his legs 
and hopped. 

He had to! 

He hopped through the Flinders; he hopped 
through the Cinders; he hopped through the 
deserts in the middle of Australia. He hopped 
like a Kangaroo. 

First he hopped one yard; then he hopped 
three yards; then he hopped five yards; his 
legs growing stronger; his legs growing longer. 
He had n’t any time for rest or refreshment, 
and he wanted them very much. 

Still ran Dingo — Yellow-Dog Dingo — - 
very much bewildered, very much hungry, 
and wondering what in the world or out of it 
made Old Man Kangaroo hop. 

For he hopped like a cricket ; like a pea in a 
saucepan ; or anewrubber ball onanursery floor. 

He had to ! 

He tucked up his front legs; he hopped on 
his hind legs; he stuck out his tail for a 
balance-weight behind him; and he hopped 
through the Darling Downs. 


This is the picture of Old Man Kangaroo at five in the 
afternoon, when he had got his beautiful hind legs 
just as Big God Nqong had promised. You can see 
that it is five o’clock, because Big God Nqong ’s pet 
tame clock says so. That is Nqong, in his bath, 
sticking his feet out. Old Man Kangaroo is being 
rude to Yellow-Dog Dingo. Yellow-Dog Dingo has 
been trying to catch Kangaroo all across Australia. 
You can see the marks of Kangaroo’s big new feet 
running ever so far back over the bare hills. Yellow- 
Dog Dingo is drawn black, because I am not allowed to 
paint these pictures with real colours out of the paint- 
box; and besides, Yellow-Dog Dingo got dreadfully 
black and dusty after running through the Flinders 
and the Cinders. 

I don’t know the names of the flowers growing 
round Nqong ’s bath. The two little squatty things 
out in the desert are the other two gods that Old Man 
Kangaroo spoke to early in the morning. That thing 
with the letters on it is Old Man Kangaroo’s pouch. 
He had to have a pouch just as he had to have legs. 


94 




/ 





97 


JUST SO STORIES 

He had to! 

Still ran Dingo — Tired-Dog Dingo — 
hungrier and hungrier, very much bewildered, 
and wondering when in the world or out of it 
would Old Man Kangaroo stop. 

Then came Nqong from his bath in the salt- 
pans, and said, “ It ’s five o’clock.” 

Down sat Dingo — Poor Dog Dingo — 
always hungry, dusky in the sunshine; hung 
out his tongue and howled. 

Down sat Kangaroo — Old Man Kangaroo 
— stuck out his tail like a milking-stool be- 
hind him, and said, “Thank goodness that’s 
finished!” 

Then said Nqong, who is always a gentle- 
man, “Why aren’t you grateful to Yellow- 
Dog Dingo ? Why don’t you thank him for all 
he has done for you?” 

Then said Kangaroo — Tired Old Kangaroo 
— “ He ’s chased me out of the homes of my 
childhood ; he ’s chased me out of my regular 
meal-times; he ’s altered my shape so I ’ll 
never get it back ; and he ’s played Old 
Scratch with my legs.” 

Then said Nqong, “ Perhaps I ’m mistaken, 
but did n’t you ask me to make you different 
from all other animals, as well as to make you 


*gS JTJST SO STORIES 

very truly sougnt after? And now it is five 
o’clock.” 

“Yes,” said Kangaroo. “I wish that I 
had n’t. I thought you would do it by 
charms and incantations, but this is a prac- 
tical joke.” 

“Joke!” said Nqong from his bath in the 
blue gums. “ Say that again and I ’ll whistle 
up Dingo and run your hind legs off.” 

“No,” said the Kangaroo. “ I must apolo- 
gise. Legs are legs, and you need n’t alter 
’em so far as I am concerned. I only meant 
to explain to Your Lordliness that I ’ve had 
nothing to eat since morning, and I ’m very 
empty indeed.” 

“ Yes,” said Dingo — Yellow-Dog Dingo — 
“ I am just in the same situation. I ’ve made 
him different from all other animals; but 
what may I have for my tea ? ” 

Then said Nqong from his bath in the salt- 
pan, “Come and ask me about it to-mcrrow, 
because I ’m going to wash.” 

So they were left in the middle of Australia, 
Old Man Kangaroo and Yellow-Dog Dingo, 
and each said, “That ’s your fault.” 


This is the mouth-filling song 
Of the race that was run by a Boomer, 

Run in a single burst — only event of its kind — 
Started by big God Nqong from Warrigaborrigarooma, 
Old Man Kangaroo first: Yellow-Dog Dingo behind. 

Kangaroo bounded away, 

His back-legs working like pistons — 

Bounded from morning till dark, 

Twenty-five feet to a bound. 

Yellow-Dog Dingo lay 

Like a yellow cloud in the distance — 

Much too busy to bark. 

My! but they covered the ground! 

Nobody knows where they went, 

Or followed the track that they flew in, 

For that Continent 

Had n’t been given a name. 

They ran thirty degrees, 

From Torres Straits to the Leeuwin 
(Look at the Atlas, please), 

And they ran back as they came. 


S’posing you could trot 
From Adelaide to the Pacific, 

For an afternoon’s run — 

Half what these gentlemen did — 

You would feel rather hot, 

But your legs would develop terrific**" 
Yes, my importunate son, 

You’d be a Marvellous Kid! 



THE BEGINNING OF THE 
ARMADILLOS 


HIS, O Best Beloved, is 
another story of the High 
and Far-Off Times. In 
the very middle of those 
times was a Stickly- 
Prickly Hedgehog, and he 
lived on the banks of the 
turbid Amazon, eating 
shelly snails and things. And he had a friend, 
a Slow-Solid Tortoise, who lived on the banks 
of the turbid Amazon, eating green lettuces 
and things. And so that was all right, Best 
Beloved. Do you see? 

But also, and at the same time, in those 
High and Far-Off Times, there was a Painted 
Jaguar, and he lived on the banks of the tur- 
bid Amazon too; and he ate everything that 
he could catch. When he could not catch 
deer or monkeys he would eat frogs and 

IOI 



102 


JUST SO STORIES 

beetles; and when he could not catch frogs 
and beetles he went to his Mother Jaguar, and 
she told him how to eat hedgehogs and 
tortoises. 

She said to him ever so many times, gra- 
ciously waving her tail. “My son, when you 
find a Hedgehog you must drop him into the 
water and then he will uncoil, and when you 
catch a Tortoise you must scoop him out of his 
shell with your paw.” And so that was all 
right, Best Beloved. 

One beautiful night on the banks of the 
turbid Amazon, Painted Jaguar found Stickly- 
Prickly Hedgehog and Slow- Solid Tortoise 
sitting under the trunk of a fallen tree. They 
could not run away, and so Stickly-Prickly 
curled himself up into a ball, because he was a 
Hedgehog, and Slow-Solid Tortoise drew in 
his head and feet into his shell as far as they 
would go, because he was a Tortoise; and so 
that was all right, Best Beloved. Do you see? 

“Now attend to me,” said Painted Jaguar, 
“ because this is very important. My mother 
said that when I meet a Hedgehog I am to drop 
him into the water and then he will uncoil, 
and when I meet a Tortoise I am to scoop him 
out of his shell with my paw. Now which of 


JUST SO STORIES 103 

you is Hedgehog and which is Tortoise? be- 
cause to save my spots, I can’t tell.” 

“Are you sure of what your Mummy told 
you?” said Stickly-Prickly Hedgehog. “Are 
you quite sure? Perhaps she said that when 
you uncoil a Tortoise you must shell him out 
of the water with a scoop, and when you paw 
a Hedgehog you must drop him on the shell.” 

“Are you sure of what your Mummy told 
you?” said Slow-and-Solid Tortoise. “Are 
you quite sure? Perhaps she said that when 
you water a Hedgehog you must drop him into 
your paw, and when you meet a Tortoise you 
must shell him till he uncoils.” 

“ I don’t think it was at all like that,” said 
Painted Jaguar, but he felt a little puzzled; 
“but, please, say it again more distinctly.” 

“ When you scoop water with your paw you 
uncoil it with a Hedgehog,” said Stickly- 
Prickly. “ Remember that, because it *s im- 
portant.” 

“But” said the Tortoise, “when you paw 
your meat you drop it into a Tortoise with a 
scoop. Why can’t you understand?” 

“You are making my spots ache,” said 
Painted Jaguar; “and besides, I did n’t want 
your advice at all. I only wanted to know 


This is an inciting map of the Turbid Amazon done 
in Red and Black. It has n’t anything to do with 
the story except that there are two Armadillos in it 
— up by the top. The inciting part are the adven- 
tures that happened to the men who went along the 
road marked in red. I meant to draw Armadillos 
when I began the map, and I meant to draw manatees 
and spider-tailed monkeys and big snakes and lots 
of Jaguars, but it was more inciting to do the map 
and the venturesome adventures in red. You begin 
at the bottom left-hand comer and follow the little 
arrows all about, and then you come quite round 
again to where the adventuresome people went home 
in a ship called the Royal Tiger. This is a most 
adventuresome picture, and all the adventures are 
told about in writing, so you can be quite sure which 
is an adventure and which is a tree or a boat. 


X04 



105 




JUST SO STORIES 107 

which of you is Hedgehog and which is 
Tortoise.” 

“I shan’t tell you,” said Stickly-Prickly. 
“but you can scoop me out of my shell if you 
like.” 

“Aha!” said Painted Jaguar. “Now I 
know you ’re Tortoise. You thought I 
wouldn’t! Now I will.” Painted Jaguar 
darted out his paddy-paw just as Stickly- 
Prickly curled himself up, and of course 
Jaguar’s paddy-paw was just filled with 
prickles. Worse than that, he knocked 
Stickly-Prickly away and away into the 
woods and the bushes, where it was too dark 
to find him. Then he put his paddy-paw 
into his mouth, and of course the prickles 
hurt him worse than ever. As soon as he 
could speak he said, “Now I know he isn’t 
Tortoise at all. But” — and then he 
scratched his head with his un-prickly paw 
— “how do I know that this other is 
Tortoise?” 

“But I am Tortoise,” said Slow-and-Solid. 
“ Your mother was quite right. She said that 
you were to scoop me out of my shell with 
your paw. Begin.” 

“You didn’t say she said that a minute 


io8 JUST SO STORIES 

ago/’ said Painted Jaguar, sucking the prickles 
out of his paddy-paw. “You said she said 
something quite different.” 

“Well, suppose you say that I said that she 
said something quite different, I don’t see that 
it makes any difference; because if she said 
what you said I said she said, it ’s just the 
same as if I said what she said she said. On 
the other hand, if you think she said that you 
were to uncoil me with a scoop, instead of 
pawing me into drops with a shell, I can’t 
help that, can I?” 

“But you said you wanted to be scooped 
out of your shell with my paw,” said Painted 
Jaguar. 

“ If you ’ll think again you ’ll find that I 
did n’t say anything of the kind. I said that 
your mother said that you were to scoop 
me out of my shell,” said Slow-and-Solid. 

“What will happen if I do ? ” said the 
Jaguar most sniffily and most cautious. 

“I don’t know, because I ’ve never been 
scooped out of my shell before; but I tell you 
truly, if you want to see me swim away you ’ve 
only got to drop me into the water.” 

“I don’t believe it,” said Painted Jaguar. 
M You ’ve mixed up all the things my mother 


JUST SO STORIES 


105, 

told me to do with the things that you asked 
me whether I was sure that she did n’t say, 
till I don’t know whether I ’m on my head or 
my painted tail; and now you come and tell 
me something I can understand, and it makes 
me more mixy than before. My mother told 
me that I was to drop one of you two into the 
water, and as you seem so anxious to be 
dropped I think you don’t want to be dropped. 
So jump into the turbid Amazon and be quick 
about it.” 

“I warn you that your Mummy won’t be 
pleased. Don’t tell her I didn’t tell you,” 
said Slow-Solid. 

“If you say another word about what my 
mother said — ” the Jaguar answered, but he 
had not finished the sentence before Slow- 
and-Solid quietly dived into the turbid Ama- 
zon, swam under water for a long way, and 
came out on the bank where Stickly-Prickly 
was waiting for him. 

“That was a very narrow escape,” said 
Stickly-Prickly. “I don’t like Painted Ja- 
guar. What did you tell him that you were ? ’ ’ 

“ I told him truthfully that I was a truthful 
Tortoise, but he would n’t believe it, and he 
made me jump into the river to see if I was,. 


no 


JUST SO STORIES 

and I was, and he is surprised. Now he ’s 
gone to tell his Mummy. Listen to him!” 

They could hear Painted Jaguar roaring 
up and down among the trees and the bushes 
by the side of the turbid Amazon, till his 
Mummy came. 

“Son, son!” said his mother ever so many 
times, graciously waving her tail, “what have 
you been doing that you should n’t have 
done? ” 

“I tried to scoop something that said it 
wanted to be scooped out of its shell with my 
paw, and my paw is full of per-ickles,” said 
Painted Jaguar. 

“Son, son!” said his mother ever so many 
times, graciously waving her tail, “by the 
prickles in your paddy-paw I see that that 
must have been a Hedgehog. You should 
have dropped him into the water.” 

“ I did that to the other thing; and he said 
he was a Tortoise, and I did n’t believe him, 
and it was quite true, and he has dived under 
the turbid Amazon, and he won’t come up 
again, and I have n’t anything at all to eat, 
and I think we had better find lodgings some- 
where else. They are too clever on the tur- 
bid Amazon for poor me!” 


JUST SO STORIES 


hi 


“Son, son!” said his mother ever so many 
times, graciously waving her tail, “now 
attend to me and remember what I say. A 
Hedgehog curls himself up into a ball and 
his prickles stick out every which w~ay 
at once. By this you may know the 
Hedgehog.” 

“I don’t like this old lady one little bit,” 
said Stickly-Prickly, under the shadow of a 
large leaf. “ I wonder what else she 
knows?” 

“A Tortoise can’t curl himself up,” Mother 
Jaguar went on, ever so many times, gracious- 
ly waving her tail. “He only draws his head 
and legs into his shell. By this you may 
know the Tortoise.” 

“ I don’t like this old lady at all — at all,” 
said Slow-and-Solid Tortoise. “ Even Painted 
Jaguar can’t forget those directions. It ’s a 
great pity that you can’t swim, Stickly- 
Prickly.” 

“Don’t talk to me,” said Stickly- Prickly. 
“ Just think how much better it would be if you 
could curl up. This is a mess! Listen to 
Painted Jaguar.” 

Painted Jaguar was sitting on the banks 


112 


JUST SO STORIES 

of the turbid Amazon sucking prickles out of 
his paws and saying to himself — 

‘‘Can’t curl, but can swim — 

Slow-Solid, that ’s him! 

Curls up, but can ’t swim — 
Stickly-Prickly, that’s him! ” 

“ He ’ll never forget that this month of 
Sundays,” said Stickly-Prickly. “Hold up 
my chin, Slow-and-Solid. I ’m going to try 
to learn to swim. It may be useful.” 

“Excellent!” said Slow-and-Solid; and he 
held up Stickly-Prickly’s chin, while Stickly- 
Prickly kicked in the waters of the turbid 
Amazon. 

“You’ll make a fine swimmer yet,” said 
Slow-and-Solid. “Now, if you can unlace 
my back-plates a little, I ’ll see what I can do 
toward curling up. It may be useful.” 

Stickly-Prickly helped to unlace Tortoise’s 
back-plates, so that by twisting and straining 
Slow-and-Solid actually managed to curl up 
a tiddy wee bit. 

“Excellent!” said Stickly-Prickly; “but I 
should n’t do any more just now. It ’s 
making you black in the face. Kindly lead 
me into the water once again and I ’ll practise 
that side-stroke which you say is so easy.” 


JUST SO STORIES 113 

And so Stickly-Prickly practised, and Slow- 
Solid swam alongside. 

“Excellent!” said Slow-and-Solid. “A 
little more practice will make you a regular 
whale. Now, if I may trouble you to unlace 
my back and front plates two holes more, I ’ll 
try that fascinating bend that you say is so 
easy. Won’t Painted J aguar be surprised ! ’ ’ 
“Excellent!” said Stickly-Prickly, all wet 
from the turbid Amazon. “I declare, I 
should n’t know you from one of my own 
family. Two holes, I think, you said? A 
little more expression, please, and don’t 
grunt quite so much, or Painted Jaguar may 
hear us. When you ’ve finished, I want to 
try that long dive which you say is so easy. 
Won’t Painted Jaguar be surprised!” 

And so Stickly-Prickly dived, and Slow- 
and-Solid dived alongside. 

“ Excellent ! ’ ’ said Slow-and-Solid. “ A 
leetle more attention to holding your breath 
and you will be able to keep house at the bot- 
tom of the turbid Amazon. Now I ’ll try 
that exercise of wrapping my hind legs round 
my ears which you say is so peculiarly com- 
fortable. Won’t Painted Jaguar be sur- 
prised!” 


1 1 4 JUST SO STORIES 

“ Excellent ! ’ ’ said Stickly-Prickly. ‘‘But 
it ’s straining your back-plates a little. They 
are all overlapping now, instead of lying side 
by side.” 

“Oh, that’s the result of exercise,” said 
Slow-and-Solid. “ I ’ve noticed that your 
prickles seem to be melting into one another 
and that you ’re growing to look rather more 
like a pine-cone, and less like a chestnut-burr, 
than you used to.” 

“Am I?” said Stickly-Prickly. “That 
comes from my soaking in the water. Oh, 
won’t Painted Jaguar be surprised!” 

They went on with their exercises, each 
helping the other, till morning came; and 
when the sun was high they rested and dried 
themselves. Then they saw that they were 
both of them quite different from what they 
had been. 

“ Stickly-Prickly,” said Tortoise after break- 
fast, “I am not what I was yesterday; but 
I think that I may yet amuse Painted 
Jaguar.” 

“That was the very thing I was thinking 
just now,” said Stickly-Prickly. “I think 
scales are a tremendous improvement on 
prickles — to say nothing of being able to 


JUST SO STORIES 115 

swim. Oh, won't Painted Jaguar be sur- 
prised ! Let ’s go and find him. 

By and by they found Painted Jaguar, still 
nursing his paddy-paw that had been hurt 
the night before. He was so astonished that 
he fell three times backward over his own 
painted tail without stopping. 

“Good morning !” said Stickly-Prickly. 
“And how is your dear gracious Mummy this 
morning?” 

“ She is quite well, thank you,” said Painted 
Jaguar; “but you must forgive me if I do not 
at this precise moment recall your name.” 

“That ’s unkind of you,” said Stickly-Prick- 
ly, “seeing that this time yesterday you tried 
to scoop me out of my shell with your paw.” 

“ But you had n't any shell. It was all 
prickles,” said Painted Jaguar. “I know it 
was. Just look at my paw!” 

“You told me to drop into the turbid 
Amazon and be drowned,” said Slow-Solid. 
“Why are you so rude and forgetful to-day?” 

“Don’t you remember what your mother 
told you?” said Stickly-Prickly — 

“ Can’t curl, but can swim — 
Stickly-Prickly, that ’s him! 

Curls up, but can’t swim — 

Slow-Solid, that ’s him!” 


This is a picture of the whole story of the Jaguar and 
the Hedgehog and the Tortoise and the Armadillo all 
in a heap. It looks rather the same any way you 
turn it. The Tortoise is in the middle, learning how 
to bend, and that is why the shelly plates on his back 
are so spread apart. He is standing on the Hedgehog, 
who is waiting to learn how to swim. The Hedgehog 
is a Japanesy Hedgehog, because I could n’t find our 
own Hedgehogs in the garden when I wanted to draw 
them. (It was daytime, and they had gone to bed 
under the dahlias.) Speckly Jaguar is looking over 
the edge, with his paddy -paw carefully tied up by his 
mother, because he pricked himself scooping the 
Hedgehog. He is much surprised to see what the 
Tortoise is doing, and his paw is hurting him. The 
snout y thing with the little eye that Speckly Jaguar 
is trying to climb over is the Armadillo that the Tor- 
toise and the Hedgehog are going to turn into when 
they have finished bending and swimming. It is all 
a magic picture, and that is one of the reasons why 
I have n’t drawn the Jaguar’s whiskers. The other 
reason was that he was so young that his whiskers 
had not grown. The Jaguar’s pet name with his 
Mummy was Doffles. 



ny 









JUST SO STORIES 119 

Then they both curled themselves up and 
rolled round and round Painted Jaguar till 
his eyes turned truly cart-wheels in his head. 

Then he went to fetch his mother. 

“ Mother,’ ’ he said, “there are two new ani- 
mals in the woods to-day, and the one that 
you said could n’t swim, swims, and the one 
that you said couldn’t curl up, curls; and 
they ’ve gone shares in their prickles, I think, 
because both of them are scaly all over, in- 
stead of one being smooth and the other very 
prickly; and, besides that, they are rolling 
round and round in circles, and I don’t feel 
comfy.” 

“Son, son!” said Mother Jaguar ever so 
many times, graciously waving her tail, “a 
Hedgehog is a Hedgehog, and can’t be any- 
thing but a Hedgehog; and a Tortoise is a 
Tortoise, and can never be anything else.” 

“ But it is n’t a Hedgehog, and it is n’t a 
Tortoise. It ’s a little bit of both, and I don’t 
know its proper name.” 

“ Nonsense ! ’ ’ said Mother Jaguar. “ Every- 
thing has its proper name. I should call it 
'Armadillo’ till I found out the real one. And 
I should leave it alone.” 

So Painted Jaguar did as he was told, 


120 


JUST SO STORIES 

especially about leaving them alone; but the 
curious thing is that from that day to this, 
O Best Beloved, no one on the banks of the 
turbid Amazon has ever called Stickly- Prickly 
and Slow-Solid anything except Armadillo. 
There are Hedgehogs and Tortoises in other 
places, of course (there are some in my gar- 
den) ; but the real old and clever kind, with 
their scales lying lippety-lappety one over the 
other, like pine-cone scales, that lived on the 
banks of the turbid Amazon in the High and 
Far-Off Days, are always called Armadillos, 
because they were so clever. 

So that ’ 5 all right, Best Beloved. Do you 
see? 


I* ve never sailed the Amazon, 

I ’ve never reached Brazil ; 

But the Don and Magdalena , 

They can go there when they will! 

Yes, weekly from Southampton, 
Great steamers, white and gold, 
Go rolling down to Rio 
(Roll down — roll down to Rio!) 
And I ’d like to roll to Rio 
Some day before I ’m old! 

i Ve never seen a Jaguar, 

Nor yet an Armadill — 

O dilloing in his armour, 

And I s’pose I never will. 

Unless I go to Rio 

These wonders to behold — 

Roll down — roll down to Rio — 
Roll really down to Rio! 

Oh, I ’d love to roll to Rio 
Some day before I ’m old! 


121 









t 

















































































































HOW THE FIRST LETTER WAS 
WRITTEN 


NCE upon a most 
early time was a 
Neolithic man. He 
was not a Jute or 
an Angle, or even, a 
Dra vidian, which he 
might well have been, 
Best Beloved, but 
never mind why. He 
was a Primitive, and he lived cavily in a Cave, 
and he wore very few clothes, and he 
couldn’t read and he couldn’t write and 
he didn’t want to, and except when he was 
hungry he was quite happy. His name was 
Tegumai Bopsulai, and that means, “Man- 
w h o-d o e s-n o t-p u t-h i s-f o o t-f o r w a r d-i n-a- 
hurry;” but we, O Best Beloved, will call 
him Tegumai, for short. And his wife’s name 
123 



124 


JUST SO STORIES 

was Teshumai Tewindrow, and that means, 
“ Lady-who-asks-a-very-many-questions ; but 
we, O Best Beloved, will call her Teshumai, for 
short. And his little girl-daughter’s name 
was Taffimai Metallumai, and that means, 
“Small-person-with-out-any-manners-who- 
ought-to-be-spanked ; ” but I ’m going to call 
her Taffy. And she was Tegumai Bopsulai’s 
Best Beloved and her own Mummy’s Best 
Beloved, and she was not spanked half as 
much as was good for her ; and they were all 
three very happy. As soon as Taffy could 
run about she went everywhere with her Daddy 
Tegumai, and sometimes they would not come 
home to the Cave till they were hungry, 
and then Teshumai Tewindrow would say, 
“Where in the world have you two been to, 
to get so shocking dirty ? Really, my Tegumai, 
you ’re no better than my Taffy.” 

Now attend and listen! 

One day Tegumai Bopsulai went down 
through the beaver-swamp to the Wagai River 
to spear carp-fish for dinner, and Taffy went 
too. Tegumai ’s spear was made of wood with 
shark’s teeth at the end, and before he had 
caught any fish at all he accidentally broke it 
clean across by jabbing it down too hard on 


JUST SO STORIES 125 

the bottom of the river. They were miles and 
miles from home (of course they had their 
lunch with them in a little bag), and Tegumai 
had forgotten to bring any extra spears. 

“Here's a pretty kettle of fish!” said 
Tegumai. “ It will take me half the day to 
mend this." 

“There ’s your big black spear at home," 
said Taffy. “Let me run back to the Cave 
and ask Mummy to give it me." 

“It's too far for your little fat legs," said 
Tegumai. “Besides, you might fall into the 
beaver-swamp and be drowned. We must 
make the best of a bad job." He sat down 
and took out a little leather mendy-bag, full 
of reindeer-sinews and strips of leather, and 
lumps of bee’s-wax and resin, and began to 
mend the spear. Taffy sat down too, with 
her toes in the water and her chin in her hand, 
and thought very hard. Then she said — 

“ I say, Daddy, it ’s an awful nuisance that 
you and I don’t know how to write, is n’t it? 
If we did we could send a message for the new 
spear." 

“Taffy," said Tegumai, “how often have 
I told you not to use slang? ‘Awful’ isn’t 
a pretty word — but it would be a con- 


126 


JUST SO STORIES 

venience, now you mention it, if we could 
write home. ,, 

Just then a Stranger-man came along the 
river, but he belonged to a far tribe, the 
Tewaras, and he did not understand one word 
of Tegumai’s language. He stood on the bank 
and smiled at Taffy, because he had a little 
girl-daughter of his own at home. Tegumai 
drew a hank of deer-sinews from his mendy- 
bag and began to mend his spear. 

“Come here,” said Taffy. “Do you know 
where my Mummy lives?” And the Stranger- 
man said “Um!” — being, as you know, a 
Tewara. 

“Silly!” said Taffy, and she stamped her 
foot, because she saw a shoal of very big carp 
going up the river just when her Daddy 
could n’t use his spear. 

“Don’t bother grown-ups,” said Tegumai, 
so busy with his spear-mending that he did not 
turn round. 

“ I are n’t,” said Taffy. “ I only want him 
to do what I want him to do, and he won’t 
understand.” 

“ Then don’t bother me,” said Tegumai, and 
he went on pulling and straining at the deer- 
sinews with his mouth full of loose ends. The 


127 


JUST SO STORIES 

Stranger-man — a genuine Tewara he was — 
sat down on the grass, and Taffy showed him 
what her Daddy was doing. The Stranger- 
man thought, “This is a very wonderful child. 
She stamps her foot at me and she makes faces. 
She must be the daughter of that noble Chief 
who is so great that he won’t take any notice 
of me. ” So he smiled more politely than ever. 

“ Now,” said Taffy, “ I want you to go to my 
Mummy, because your legs are longer than 
mine, and you won’t fall into the beaver- 
swamp, and ask for Daddy’s other spear — 
the one with the black handle that hangs over 
our fireplace.” 

The Stranger-man {and he was a Tewara) 
thought, “ This is a very, very wonderful child. 
She waves her arms and she shouts at me, but 1 
don’t understand a word of what she says. 
But if I don’t do what she wants, I greatly 
fear that that haughty Chief, Man-who-turns 
his-back-on-callers, will be angry.” He got 
up and twisted a big flat piece of bark off a 
birch-tree and gave it to Taffy. He did this, 
Best Beloved, to show that his heart was as 
white as the birch-bark and that he meant no 
harm; but Taffy didn’t quite understand. 

“Oh!” said she. “Now I see! You want 


128 


JUST SO STORIES 

my Mummy's living-address? Of course I 
can’t write, but I can draw pictures if I ’ve 
anything sharp to scratch with. Please lend 
me the shark’s tooth off your necklace.” 

The Stranger-man (and he was a Tewara) 
did n’t say anything, so Taffy put up her little 
hand and pulled at the beautiful bead and 
seed and shark-tooth necklace round his neck. 

The Stranger-man (and he was a Tewara) 
thought, “This is a very, very, very, wonderful 
child. The shark’s tooth on my necklace is a 
magic shark’s tooth, and I was always told 
that if anybody touched it without my leave 
they would immediately swell up or burst, but 
this child does n’t swell up or burst, and that 
important Chief, Man-who-attends-strictly- 
to-his-business, who has not yet taken any 
notice of me at all, does n’t seem to be afraid 
that she will swell up or burst. I had better 
be more polite.” 

So he gave Taffy the shark’s tooth, and she 
lay down flat on her tummy with her legs in 
the air, like some people on the drawing-room 
floor when they want to draw pictures, and 
she said, “ Now I ’ll draw you some beautiful 
pictures! You can look over my shoulder, 
but you must n’t joggle. First 1 ’ll draw 


JUST SO STORIES 


129 


Daddy fishing. It is n’t very like him; but 
Mummy will know, because I ’ve drawn his 
spear all broken. Well, now I ’ll draw the 
other spear that he wants, the black-handled 
spear. It looks as if it was sticking in Daddy’s 
back, but that ’s because the shark’s tooth 
slipped and this piece of bark is n’t big enough. 
That ’s the spear I want you to fetch; so I ’ll 
draw a picture of me myself ’splaining to you. 
My hair does n’t stand up like I ’ve drawn, but 
it ’s easier to draw that way. Now I ’ll draw 
you. I think you ’re very nice really, but I 
can’t make you pretty in the picture, so you 
must n’t be ’fended. Are you ’fended?” 

The Stranger-man (and he was a Tewara) 
smiled. He thought, “There must be a big 
battle going to be fought somewhere, and this 
extraordinary child, who takes my magic 
shark’s tooth but who does not swell up or 
burst, is telling me to call all the great Chief’s 
tribe to help him. He is a great Chief, or he 
would have noticed me.” 

“Look,” said Taffy, drawing very hard and 
rather scratchily, “now I ’ve drawn you, and 
I ’• ve put the spear that Daddy wants into your 
hand, just to remind you that you ’re to bring 
it. Now I ’ll show you how to find my 


130 


JUST SO STORIES 

Mummy’s living-address. You go along till 
you come to two trees (those are trees), and 
then you go over a hill (that ’s a hill), and then 
you come into a beaver-swamp all full of 
beavers. I have n’t put in all the beavers, 
because I can’t draw beavers, but I ’ve drawn 
their heads, and that ’s all you ’ll see of them 
when you cross the swamp. Mind you don’t 
fall in! Then our Cave is just beyond the 
beaver-swamp. It is n’t as high as the hills 
really, but I can’t draw things very small. 
That ’s my Mummy outside. She is beautiful. 
She is the most beautifullest Mummy there 
ever was, but she won’t be ’fended when she 
sees I ’ve drawn her so plain. She ’ll be 
pleased of me because I can draw. Now, in 
case you forget, I ’ve drawn the spear that 
Daddy wants outside our Cave. It ’s inside 
really, but you show the picture to my Mummy 
and she ’ll give it you. I ’ve made her holding 
up her hands, because I know she ’ll be so 
pleased to see you. Is n’t it a beautiful pic- 
ture? And do you quite understand, or shall 
I ’splain again?” 

The Stranger-man (and he was a Tewara) 
looked at the picture and nodded very hard. 
He said to himself, “ If I do not fetch this great 


JUST SO STORIES 


131 

Chief’s tribe to help him, he will be slain by 
his enemies who are coming up on all sides 
with spears. Now I see why the great Chief 
pretended not to notice me! He feared that 
his enemies were hiding in the bushes and 
would see him deliver a message to me. There- 
fore he turned his back, and let the wise and 
wonderful child draw the terrible picture show- 
ing me his difficulties. I will away and get 
help for him from his tribe.” He did not even 
ask Taffy the road, but raced off into the 
bushes like the wind, with the birch-bark in 
his hand, and Taffy sat down most pleased. 

Now this is the picture that Taffy had 
drawn for him! 



1 3 2 


JUST SO STORIES 

“What have you been doing, Taffy?” said 
Tegumai. He had mended his spear and was 
carefully waving it to and fro. 

“ It 's a little berangement of my own, 
Daddy dear,” said Taffy. “If you won’t ask 
me questions, you ’ll know all about it in a 
little time, and you ’ll be surprised. You 
don’t know how surprised you ’ll be, Daddy! 
Promise you ’ll be surprised.” 

“Very well,” said Tegumai, and went on 
fishing. 

The Stranger-man — did you know he was 
a Tewara? — hurried away with the picture 
and ran for some miles, till quite by accident 
he found Teshumai Tewindrow at the door of 
her Cave, talking to some other Neolithic 
ladies who had come in to a Primitive lunch. 
Taffy was very like Teshumai, especially about 
the upper part of the face and the eyes, so the 
Stranger-man — always a pure Tewara — 
smiled politely and handed Teshumai the 
birch-bark. He had run hard, so that he 
panted, and his legs were scratched with 
brambles, but he still tried to be polite. 

As soon as Teshumai saw the picture she 
screamed like anything and flew at the 
Stranger-man. The other Neolithic ladies at 


JUST SO STORIES 


i33 


once knocked him down and sat on him in a 
long line of six, while Teshumai pulled his 
hair. “It ’s as plain as the nose on this 
Stranger-man’s face,” she said. “He has 
stuck my Tegumai all full of spears, and fright- 
ened poor Taffy so that her hair stands all on 
end ; and not content with that, he brings me 
a horrid picture of how it was done. Look!” 
She showed the picture to all the Neolithic 
ladies sitting patiently on the Stranger-man. 
“Here is my Tegumai with his arm broken; 
here is a spear sticking into his back ; here is a 
man with a spear ready to throw; here is 
another man throwing a spear from a Cave, 
and here are a whole pack of people” (they 
were Taffy’s beavers really, but they did look 
rather like people) “coming up behind Te- 
gumai. Isn’t it shocking!” 

“ Most shocking!” said the Neolithic ladies, 
and they filled the Stranger-man’s hair with 
mud (at which he was surprised), and they 
beat upon the Reverberating Tribal Drums, 
and called together all the chiefs of the Tribe 
of Tegumai, with their Hetmans and Dolmans, 
all Neguses, Woons, and Akhoonds of the 
organisation, in addition to the Warlocks, 
Angekoks, Juju-men, Bonzes, and the rest, 


134 


JUST SO STORIES 

who decided that before they chopped the 
Stranger-man’s head off he should instantly 
lead them down to the river and show them 
where he had hidden poor Taffy. 

By this time the Stranger-man (in spite of 
being a Tewara) was really annoyed. They 
had filled his hair quite solid with mud ; they 
had rolled him up and down on knobby peb- 
bles; they had sat upon him in a long line 
of six; they had thumped him and bumped 
him till he could hardly breathe; and though 
he did not understand their language, he was 
almost sure that the names the Neolithic 
ladies called him were not ladylike. How- 
ever, he said nothing till all the Tribe of Te- 
gumai were assembled, and then he led them 
back to the bank of the Wagai River, and there 
they found Taffy making daisy-chains, and 
Tegumai carefully spearing small carp with 
his mended spear. 

“Well, you have been quick!” said Taffy. 
“But why did you bring so many people? 
Daddy dear, this is my surprise. Are you 
surprised, Daddy?” 

“Very,” said Tegumai; “ but it has ruined all 
my fishing for the day. Why, the whole dear, 
kind, nice, clean, quiet Tribe is here, Taffy.” 


JUST SO STORIES 


X 3S 

And so they were. First of all walked 
Teshumai Tewindrow and the Neolithic ladies, 
tightly holding on to the Stranger-man, whose 
hair was full of mud (although he was a 
Tewara). Behind them came the Head 
Chief, the Vice-Chief, the Deputy and Assist- 
ant Chiefs (all armed to the upper teeth), the 
Hetmans and Heads of Hundreds, Platoffs 
with their Platoons, and Dolmans with their 
Detachments; Woons, Neguses, and Akhoonds 
ranking in the rear (still armed to the teeth). 
Behind them was the Tribe in hierarchical 
order, from owners of four caves ; (one for each 
season), a private reindeer-run, and two 
salmon-leaps, to feudal and prognathous Vil- 
leins, semi-entitled to half a bearskin of winter 
nights, seven yards from the fire, and adscript 
serfs, holding the reversion of a scraped mar- 
row-bone under heriot (Are n’t those beauti- 
ful words, Best Beloved?) They were all 
there, prancing and shouting, and they 
frightened every fish for twenty miles, and 
Tegumai thanked them in a fluid Neolithic 
oration. 

Then Teshumai Tewindrow ran down and 
kissed and hugged Taffy very much indeed; 
but the Head Chief of the Tribe of Tegumai 


1 3 6 


JUST SO STORIES 


took Tegumai by the top-knot feathers and 
shook him severely. 

“Explain! Explain! Explain !” cried all 
the Tribe of Tegumai. 

“Goodness’ sakes alive!” said Tegumai. 
“ Let go of my top-knot. Can’t a man break 
his carp-spear without the whole countryside 
descending on him? You ’re a very interfer- 
ing people.” 

“ I don’t believe you ’ve brought my Daddy’s 
black-handled spear after all, ’’said Taffy. “And 
what are you doing to my nice Stranger-man? ” 

They were thumping him by twos and threes 
and tens till his eyes turned round and round. 
He could only gasp and point at Taffy. 

“ Where are the bad people who speared you, 
my darling?” said Teshumai Tewindrow. 

“There were n’t any,” said Tegumai. “My 
only visitor this morning was the poor iellow 
that your are trying to choke. Are n’t you 
well, or are you ill, 0 Tribe of Tegumai?” 

“ He came with a horrible picture,” said the 
Head Chief — “a picture that showed you 
were full of spears.” 

“ Er — um — Pr’aps I ’d better ’splain that 
I gave him that picture,” said Taffy, but she 
did not feel quite <X)mfy. 


JUST SO STORIES 


137 


“You!” said the Tribe of Tegumai all to- 
together. “ Small-person-with-no-manners- 
who-ought-to-be-spanked ! You ? ” 

“ Taffy dear, I ’m afraid we ’re in for a 
little trouble,” said her Daddy, and put his 
arm round her, so she did n’t care. 

‘‘Explain! Explain! Explain!” said the 
Head Chief of the Tribe of Tegumai, and he 
hopped on one foot. 

“ I wanted the Stranger-man to fetch 
Daddy’s spear, so I drawded it,” said Taffy. 
“ There was n’t lots of spears. There was only 
one spear. I drawded it three times to make 
sure. I could n’t help it looking as if it stuck 
into Daddy’s head — there was n’t room on 
the birch-bark; and those things that 
Mummy called bad people are my beavers. I 
drawded them to show him the way through 
the swamp; and I drawded Mummy at the 
mouth of the Cave looking pleased because he 
is a nice Stranger-man, and I think you are 
just the stupidest people in the world,” said 
Taffy. “He is a very nice man. Why have 
you filled his hair with mud ? Wash him!” 

Nobody said anything at all for a long 
time, till the Head Chief laughed; then the 
Stranger-man (who was at least a Tewara) 


138 JUST SO STORIES 

laughed; then Tegumai laughed till he fell 
down flat on the bank; then all the Tribe 
laughed more and worse and louder. The 
only people who did not laugh were Teshumai 
Tewindrow and all the Neolithic ladies. They 
were very polite to all their husbands, and said 
“ idiot !” ever so often. 

Then the Head Chief of the Tribe of Teg- 
umai cried and said and sang, “O Small- 
person -without-any-manners-who-ought - to - 
to-be-spanked, you ’ve hit upon a great 
invention !” 

“ I did n’t intend to;- I only wanted Daddy’s 
black-handled spear,” said Taffy. 

“Never mind. It is a great invention, and 
some day men will call it writing. At present 
it is only pictures, and, as we have seen to-day, 
pictures are not always properly understood. 
But a time will come, O Babe of Tegumai, 
when we shall make letters — all twenty-six 
of ’em — and when we shall be able to read 
as well as to write, and then we shall always 
say exactly what we mean without any mis- 
takes. Let the Neolithic ladies wash the mud 
out of the stranger’s hair.” 

“I shall be glad of that,” said Taffy, “be- 
cause, after all, though you ’ve brought every 


JUST SO STORIES 


139 


single other spear in the Tribe of Tegumai, 
you ’ve forgotten my Daddy’s black-handled 
spear.” 

Then the Head Chief cried and said and 
sang, “Taffy dear, the next time you write a 
picture-letter, you’ d better send a man who 
can talk our language with it, to explain what 
it means. I don’t mind it myself, because I 
am a Head Chief, but it ’s very bad for the rest 
of the Tribe of Tegumai, and, as you can see, 
it surprises the stranger.” 

Then they adopted the Stranger-man (a 
genuine Tewara of Tewar) into the Tribe of 
Tegumai, because he was a gentleman and did 
not make a fuss about the mud that the Neo- 
lithic ladies had put into his hair. But from 
that day to this (and I suppose it is all Taffy’s 
fault), very few little girls have ever liked 
learning to read or write. Most of them prefer 
to draw pictures and play about with their 
Daddies — just like Taffy. 


This is the story of Taffimai Metallumai carved on an 
old tusk a very long time ago by the Ancient Peoples. 
If you read my story, or have it read to you, you can 
see how it is all told out on the tusk. The tusk was 
part of an old tribal trumpet that belonged to the 
Tribe of Tegumai. The pictures were scratched on 
it with a nail or something, and then the scratches 
were filled up with black wax, but all the dividing 
lines and the five little rounds at the bottom were 
filled with red wax. When it was new there was a 
sort of network of beads and shells and precious stones 
at one end of it; but now that has been broken and 
lost — all except the little bit that you see. The 
letters round the tusk are magic — Runic magic — 
and if you can read them you will find out something 
rather new. The tusk is of ivory ■ — very yellow and 
scratched. It is two feet long and two feet round, and 
weighs eleven pounds nine ounces. 


140 



141 






There runs a road by Merrow Down — 

A grassy track to-day it is — 

An hour out of Guildford town, 

Above the river Wey it is. 

Here, when they they heard the horse-bells ring, 
The ancient Britains dressed and rode 

To watch the dark Phoenicians bring 
Their goods along the Western Road. 

And here, or hereabouts, they met 

To hold their racial talks and such — 

To barter beads for Whitby jet, 

And tin for gay shell torques and such. 

But long and long before that time 
(When bison used to roam on it) 

Did Taffy and her Daddy climb 

That down, and had their home on it. 

Then beavers built in Broadstonebrook 
And made a swamp where Bramley stands ; 

And bears from Shere would come and look 
For Taffimai where Shamley stands. 

The Wey, that Taffy called Wagai, 

Was more than six times bigger then; 

And all the Tribe of Tegumai 
They cut a noble figure then! 


143 


* 


l.t 


HOW THE ALPHABET WAS MADE. 

T HE week after Taffimai Me- 
tallumai (we will still call 
her Taffy, Best Beloved) 
made that little mistake 
about her Daddy’s spear 
and the Stranger-man and 
the picture-letter and all, 
she went carp-fishing again 
with her Daddy . Her Mummy wanted her to 
stay at home and help hang up hides to dry 
on the big drying-poles outside their Neolithic 
Cave, but Taffy slipped away down to her 
Daddy quite early, and they fished. Presently 
she began to giggle, and her Daddy said,. 
“Don’t be silly, child.” 

“But wasn’t it inciting!” said Taffy. 
“ Don’t you remember how the Head Chief 
puffed out his cheeks, and how funny the nice 
Stranger-man looked with the mud in his 
hair?” 


i45 


146 


JUST SO STORIES 

“ Well do I,” said Tegumai. “ I had to pay 
two deerskins — soft ones with fringes — to the 
Stranger-man for the things we did to him.” 

“We didn’t do anything,” said Taffy. 
“ It was Mummy and the other Neolithic 
ladies — and the mud.” 

“We won’t talk about that,” said her 
Daddy. “Let ’s have lunch.” 

Taffy took a marrow-bone and sat mousy- 
quiet for ten whole minutes, while her Daddy 
scratched on pieces of birch-bark with a shark’s 
tooth. Then she said, “Daddy, I ’ve thinked 
of a secret surprise. You make a noise — 
any sort of noise.” 

“Ah!” said Tegumai. “Will that do to 
begin with?” 

“Yes,” said Taffy. “You look just like a 
carp-fish with its mouth open. Say it again, 
please.” 

“Ah! ah! ah!” said her Daddy. “Don’t 
be rude, my daughter.” 

“I’m not meaning rude, really and truly,” 
said Taffy. “It ’s part of my secret-surprise- 
think. Do say ah , Daddy, and keep your 
mouth open at the end, and lend me that 
tooth. I ’m going to draw a carp-fish’s mouth 
wide open.” 


JUST SO STORIES 


i47 


“What for?” said her Daddy. 

“Don’t you see?” said Taffy, scratching 
away on the bark. “That will be our little 
secret s’prise. When I draw a carp-fish with 
his mouth open in the smoke at the back of 
our Cave — if Mummy does n’t mind — it 
will remind you of that ah-noise. Then we 
can play that it was me jumped out of the 
dark and s ’prised you with that noise — same 
as I did in the beaver-swamp last winter.” 

“Really?” said her Daddy, in the voice 
that grown-ups use when they are truly at- 
tending. ‘ ‘ Go on, Taffy. ’ ’ 

“Oh bother!” she said. “I can’t draw all 
of a carp-fish, but I can draw something that 
means a carp-fish’s mouth. 

Don’t you knowhow they stand 
on their heads rooting in the 
mud? Well, here ’s a pretence 
carp-fish (we can play that the 
rest of him is drawn) . Here ’s just his 
mouth, and that means ah. 1 ' And she drew 
this. (1) 

“That’s not bad,” said Tegumai, and 
scratched on his own piece of bark for himself ; 
“but you ’ve forgotten the feeler that hangs 
across his mouth.” 



148 


JUST SO STORIES 


“But I can’t draw, Daddy.” 

“You need n’t draw anything of him except 

[ > just the opening of his mouth 
u and the feeler across. Then 
f we ’ll know he ’s a carp-fish, 
/ v/ ’cause the perches and trouts 
2 have n’t got feelers. Look here, 

Taffy.” And he drew this. (2.) 

“Now 111 copy it.” said Taffy. “Will 
you understand this when you see it?” And 
she drew this. (3.) 

“Perfectly,” said her Daddy. 

“And I ’ll be quite as s’prised 
when I see it anywhere, as if yy 
you had jumped out from 3 

behind a tree and said ‘Ah!’ ” 

“Now, make another noise,” said Taffy, 
very proud. 

“Yah!” said her Daddy, very loud. 

“ H’ m,” said Taffy. “That ’s a mixy noise. 
The end part is a/^-carp-fish-mouth ; but wliat 
can we do about the front part? Yer-yer-yer 
and ah! Ya /” 

“It ’s very like the carp-fish-mouth noise. 
Let ’s draw another bit of the carp-fish and 
join ’em,” said her Daddy. He was quite 
incited too. 


■Px) 


JUST SO STORIES 


149 


“ No. If they ’re joined, I ’ll forget. Draw 
it separate. Draw his tail. If he ’s standing 
on his head the tail will come first. ’Sides, 
I think I can draw tails easiest,” said Taffy. 

“ A good notion,” said Tegumai. “ Here ’s a 
carp-fish tail for the y^r-noise.” 

And he drew this. (4.) 

“I ’ll try now,” said Taffy. 

“ ’Member I can’t draw like you, 

Daddy. Will it do if I just 
draw the split part of the tail, and the sticky- 
down line for where it joins?” 

^ And she drew this. (5.) 
j] Her Daddy nodded, and his 

jf eyes were shiny bright with ’cite- 

y ment. 

“That ’s beautiful,” she said. 
“Now make another noise, Daddy.” 

“ Oh!” said her Daddy, very loud. 

'‘That’s quite easy,” said Taffy. “You 
make your mouth all around like an egg 01 
a stone. So an egg or a stone will do foi 
that.” 

“You can’t always find eggs or 
stones. We ’ll have to scratch a 
round something like one.” And 
>^e drew this. (6.) 




IS® 


JUST SO STORIES 


“My gracious!” said Taffy, “what a lot of 
noise-pictures we ’ve made — carp-mouth, 
carp-tail, and egg ! Now, make another noise, 
Daddy.” 

“Ssh!” said her Daddy, and frowned to 
himself, but Taffy was too incited to notice. 

“That’s quite easy,” she said, scratching 
on the bark. 

“Eh, what?” said her Daddy. “I meant 
I was thinking, and did n’t want to be dis- 
turbed.” 

“ It ’s a noise just the same. It ’s the noise 
a snake makes, Daddy, when it is thinking 
and does n’t want to be disturbed. 
Let ’s make the ss^-noise a snake. 
Will this do?” And she drew 
this. (7.) 

“ There,” she said. “ That ’s an- 
7 other s ’prise secret. When you 
draw a hissy-snake by the door of your little 
back-cave where you mend the spears, I ’ll 
know you ’re thinking hard ; and I ’ll come in 
most mousy-quiet. And if you draw it on a 
tree by the river when you ’re fishing, I ’ll 
know you want me to walk most most mousy- 
quiet, so as not to shake the banks.” 

“Perfectly true,” said Tegumai. “And 



JUST SO STORIES 


151 


there ’s more in this game than you think. 
Taffy, dear, I ’ve a notion that your Daddy’s 
daughter has hit upon the finest thing that 
there ever was since the Tribe of Tegumai 
took to using shark’s teeth instead of flints 
for their spear-heads. I believe we ’ve found 
out the big secret of the world.” 

“ Why? ” said Taffy, and her eyes shone too 
with incitement. 

“I’ll show,” said her Daddy. “What’s 
water in the Tegumai language? ” 

“ Ya , of course, and it means river too — 
like Wagai-ya — the Wagai river.” 

“ What is bad water that gives you fever if 
you drink it — black water — swamp-water? ” 

“ Yo , of course.” 

“Now look,” said her 
Daddy. “S’pose you saw 
this scratched by the side of 
a pool in the beaver-swamp ? ’ ’ 

And he drew this. (8) 

“Carp-tail and round egg. 
mixed! Yo, bad water,” 

“ ’Course I would n’t drink that water because 
I ’d know you said it was bad.” 

“ But I need n’t be near the water at all. I 
might be miles away, hunting, and still ” 



Two 

said 


noises 

Taffy. 


152 


JUST SO STORIES 


“And still it would be just the same as if 
you stood there and said, ‘G ’way, Taffy, or 
you ’ll get fever. ’ All that in a carp-fishtail 
and a round egg ! O Daddy, we must tell Mum- 
my, quick!” and Taffy danced all round him. 

“Not yet,” said Tegumai; “not till we ’ve 
gone a little further. Let ’s see. Yo is bad 


water, but so is food cooked 
on the fire, is n’t it ? ” And he 
drew this. (9.) 



“Yes. Snake and egg,” said 
Taffy. “So that means din- 


9 


ner ’s ready. If you saw that scratched on a 
tree you *d know it was time to come to the 
Cave. So ’d I.” 

“ My Winkie ! ” said Tegumai. “ That ’s true 
too. But wait a minute. I see a difficulty. 
So means “come and have dinner,” but 
sho means the drying-poles where we hang 
our hides.” 

“Horrid old drying-poles!” said Taffy. “I 
hate helping to hang heavy, hot, hairy hides 
on them. If you drew the snake and egg, and 
I thought it meant dinner, and I came in from 
the wood and found that it meant I was to 
help Mummy hang the two hides on the drying- 
poles, what would I do?” 


JUST SO STORIES 


i53 


“ You'd be cross. So ’d Mummy. We 
must make a new picture for sho. We must 
draw a spotty snake that hisses sh-sh , and 
we ’ll play that the plain snake only hisses 

“ I could n’t be sure how to put in the spots,” 
said Taffy. “And p’raps if you were in a 
hurry you might leave them out, and I ’d 
think it was so when it was sho , and then 
Mummy would catch me just the same. No! 
I think we ’d better draw a picture of the* 
horrid high drying-poles their very selves, 
and make quite sure. I ’ll put them in just 
after the hissy-snake. Look!” And she drew 
this. (10.) 

" P’raps that ’s safest. 

It ’s very like our dry- 
ing-poles, anyhow, ’ ’ 

said her Daddy, laugh- 
ing. “ Now I ’ll make 
a new noise with a snake and drying-pole 
sound in it. I ’ll say shi. That’s Tegumai 
for spear, Taffy.” And he laughed. 

“Don’t make fun of me,” said Taffy, as she 
thought of her picture-letter and the mud 
in the Stranger-man’s hair. “ You draw it, 
Daddy.” 



10 


154 


JUST SO STORIES 


“We won’t have beavers or hills this time, 
eh?” said her Daddy. “I’ll just draw a 


straight line for my spear.” 
And he drew this, (n.) 



“Even Mummy couldn’t 
mistake that for me being 


killed.” 


“ Please don’t, Daddy. It 


ii 


makes me uncomfy. Do some more noises. 
We ’re getting on beautifully.” 

“Er-hm!” said Tegumai, looking up. 
“We ’ll say shu. That means sky.” 

Taffy drew the snake and the drying- 
pole. Then she stopped. “We must make 
a new picture for that end sound, must n ’t 


“ Shu-shu-u-u-u! ” said her Daddy. “ Why, 
it ’s just like the round-egg-sound made 


thin.” 


“Then s’pose we draw a thin round egg, 
and pretend it ’s a frog that has n’t eaten 
anything for years.” 

“N-no,” said her Daddy. “If we drew 
that in a hurry we might mistake it for the 
round egg itself. Shu-shu shu ! 1 77 tell you 
what we ’ll do. We ’ll open a little hole at 
the end of the round egg to show how the 


JUST SO STORIES i 5 r 

O-noise runs out all thin, 000-00-00. Like 
this.” And he drew this. (12.) 

“Oh, that ’s lovely! Much better ® * 
than a thin frog. Go on,” said f \ 
Taffy, using her shark’s tooth. ( I 


Her Daddy went on drawing, and ^ J 
his hand shook with incitement. He 
went on till he had drawn this. (13.) 

“Don’t look up, Taffy,” he said. “Try if 


you can make 
out what that 
means in the 
Tegumai lang- 
uage. If you 



can, we ’ve found the Secret.” 

“Snake — pole — broken-egg — carp-tail 
and carp-mouth,” said Taffy. “ Shu-ya. Sky- 
water (rain).” Just then a drop fell on her 
hand, for the day had clouded over. “ Why, 
Daddy, it ’s raining. Was that what you 
meant to tell me?” 

“ Of course,” said her Daddy. “And I told 
it you without saying a word, did n’t I?” 

“Well, I think I would have known it in a 
minute, but that raindrop made me quite 
sure. I ’ll always remember now. Shu-ya 
means rain or ‘it is going to rain.’ Why, 


1 5 6 JUST SO STORIES 

Daddy !” She got up and danced round him. 
“S’pose you went out before I was awake, 
and drawed shu-ya in the smoke on the wall, 
I ’d know it was going to rain and I ’d take my 
beaver-skin hood. Would n’t Mummy be 
surprised!” 

Tegumai got up and danced. (Daddies 
did n’t mind doing those things in those days.) 
“More than that! More than that!” he said. 
“S’pose I wanted to tell you it was n’t going 
to rain much and you must come down to the 
river, what would we draw? Say the words 
in Tegumai- talk first.” 

“ Shu-ya-las, ya maru. (Sky- water ending. 
River come to.) What a lot of new sounds! 
I don’t see how we can draw them.” 

“But I do — but I do!” said Tegumai. 
“Just attend a minute, Taffy, and we won’t 
do any more to-day. We ’ve got shu-ya all 
right, haven’t we? but this las is a teaser. 
La-la-la /” and he waved his shark’s-tooth. 

“There’s the hissy-snake at the end and the 
carp-mouth before the snake — as-as-as. We 
only want la-la” said Taffy. 

“ I know it, but we have to make la-la. And 
we ’re the first people in all the w T orld who Ve 
ever tried to do it, Taffimai!” 


JUST SO STORIES 


i57' 


‘‘Weil/' said Taffy, yawning, for she was- 
rather tired. “Las means breaking or finish- 
ing as well as ending, does n’t it?” 

“So it does,” said Tegumai. “Yo-las 
means that there ’s no water in the tank for 
Mummy to cook with — just when I ’m going 
hunting, too.” 

“And ski-las means that your spear is 
broken. If I ’d only thought of that instead 
of drawing silly beaver pictures for the 
Stranger I” 

“La! La! La!” said Tegumai, waving his 
stick and frowning. “Oh bother!” 

“I could have drawn ski quite easily,” 
Taffy went on. “Then I ’d have drawn your 
spear all broken — this way!” And she drew. 
( I 4-) 

“ The very thing,” said Tegumai. “ That ’s 





*4 


la all over. It is n ’t like any of the other 
marks, either.” And he drew this. (15.) 

“ Now for ya. Oh, we ’ve done that before. 
Now for maru. Mum-mum-mum . Mum* 


JUST SO STORIES 


iS8 

shuts one’s mouth up, doesn’t it? We’ll 
draw a shut mouth like this.” And he drew. 
(16.) 

“Then the carp-mouth open. That makes 
Ma-ma-ma ! But what about this mrr-thing, 
Taffy?” 

“It sounds all rough and edgy, like your 
shark-tooth saw when you ’re cutting out a 
plank for the canoe,” said 
Taffy. 

“You mean all sharp at 
the edges, like this?” said 
Tegumai. And he drew. (17.) 

“ ’Xactly,” said Taffy. “But we don’t 
want all those teeth: only put two.” 

“I 11 only put in one,” said Tegumai. “ If 
this game of ours is going to be what I think 
it will, the easier we make our sound-pictures 
the better for everybody.” And 
he drew. (18.) 

“Now we Ve got it,” said Tegumai, 
standing on one leg. “ I ’ll draw ’em 
all in a string like fish.” x8 

“Had n’t we better put a little bit of stick 
or something between each word, so ’s they 
won’t rub up against each other and jostle, 
same as if they were carps?” 




JUST SO STORIES 


159 


“On, I ’ll leave a space for that,” said her 
Daddy. And very incitedly he drew them 
all without stopping, on a big new bit of birch- 
bark. (19.) 

19 

“ Shu-ya-las ya-maru,” said Taffy, reading 
it out sound by sound. 

“That’s enough for to-day,” said Tegumai. 
“ Besides, you ’re getting tired, Taffy. Never 
mind, dear. We ’ll finish it all to-morrow, 
and then we ’ll be remembered for years and 
years after the biggest trees you can see are 
all chopped up for firewood.” 

So they went home, and all that evening 
Tegumai sat on one side of the fire and Taffy 
on the other, drawing ya's and yo's and shu’s 
and ski's in the smoke on the wall and giggling 
together till her Mummy said, “Really, Teg- 
umai, you ’re worse than my Taffy.” 

“Please don’t mind,” said Taffy. “It’s 
only our secret-s ’prise, Mummy dear, and 
we ’ll tell you all about it the very minute 
it ’s done; but please don’t ask me what it is 
now, or else I ’ll have to tell.” 


160 JUST SO STORIES 

So her Mummy most carefully did n’t; 
and bright and early next morning Tegumai 
went down to the river to think about new 
sound-pictures, and when Taffy got up she saw 
Yr-las (water is ending or running out) 
chalked on the side of the big stone water- 
tank, outside the Cave. 

“Um,” said Taffy. “These picture- 
sounds are rather a bother ! Daddy ’s just as 
good as come here himself and told me to get 
more water for Mummy to cook with.” She 
went to the spring at the back of the house 
and filled the tank from a bark bucket, and 
then she ran down to the river and pulled her 
Daddy’s left ear — the one that belonged to 
her to pull when she was good. 

“Now come along and we ’ll draw all the 
left-over sound-pictures,” said her Daddy, 
and they had a most inciting day of it, and a 
beautiful lunch in the middle, and two games 
of romps. When they came to T, Taffy said 
that as her name, and her Daddy’s, and her 
Mummy’s all began with that sound, they 
should draw a sort of family group of them- 
selves holding hands. That was all very well 
to draw once or twice; but when it came to 
drawing it six or seven times, Taffy and 


JUST SO STORIES 


161 


Tegumai drew it scratchier and scratchier, till 
at last the T-sound was only a thin long 
Tegumai with his arms out to hold Taffy and 
Teshumai. You can see from these three 
pictures partly how it happened. (20, 21,22.) 

Many of the other pictures were much too 
beautiful to begin with, especially before 


WVUU.1/U.U1 uw k-^gxxx vvxoxx, to ucivji c 

IJt T T 2 


30 


31 


lunch, but as they were drawn over and over 
again on birch-bark, they became plainer and 
easier, till at last even Tegumai said he could 
find no fault with them. They turned the 
hissy-snake the other way round for the 
Z-sound, to show it was hissing backwards 
in a soft and gentle way (23) ; and they just 
made a twiddle for E, because it came into 
the pictures so often (24); and they drew 



e 


pictures of the sacred Beaver of the Tegumais 
for the B-sound (25, 26, 27, 28); and because 


162 


JUST SO STORIES 


it was a nasty, nosy noise, they just drew 
noses for the N-sound, till they were tired (29) ; 
and they drew a picture of the big lake-pike’s 
mouth for the greedy Ga-sound (30) ; and they 

Q }>}^ 

38 39 30 


drew the pike’s mouth again with a spear 
behind it for the scratchy, hurty Ka-sound 
(31) ; and they drew pictures of a little bit of 
the winding Wagai River for the nice windy- 
windy Wa-sound (32, 33); and so on and so 
forth and so following till they had done and 
drawn all the sound-pictures that they wanted, 
and there was the Alphabet, all complete. 

And after thousands and thousands and 
thousands of years, and after Hieroglyphics 


3C 



M 


and Demotics, and Nilotics, and Cryptics, and 
Cufics, and Runics, and Dorics, and Ionics, 
and all sorts of other ricks and tricks (be- 
cause the Woons, and the Neguses, and the 


JUST SO STORIES 163 

Akhoonds, and the Repositories of Tradition 
would never leave a good thing alone when 
they saw it) , the fine old easy, understandable 
Alphabet — A, B, C, D, E, and the rest of ’em 
got back into its proper shape again for all 
Best Beloveds to learn when they are old 
enough. 

But I remember Tegumai Bopsulai, and 
Taffimai Metallumai and Teshumai Tewind- 
row, her dear Mummy, and all the days gone 
by. And it was so — just so — a little time 
ago — on the banks of the big Wagai! 


"One of the first things that Tegumai Bopsulai c- 
after Taffy and he had made the Alphabet was co 
make a magic Alphabet-necklace of all the letters, 
so that it could be put in the Temple of Tegumai and 
kept for ever and ever. All the Tribe of Tegumai 
brought their most precious beads and beautiful 
things, and Taffy and Tegumai spent five whole years 
getting the necklace in order. This is a picture of 
the magic Alphabet-necklace. The string was made 
of the finest and strongest reindeer-sinew, bound 
round with thin copper wire. 

Beginning at the top, the first bead is an old silver 
one that belonged to the Head Priest of the Tribe of 
Tegumai ; then come three black mussel-pearls ; next 
is a clay bead (bule and grey); next a nubbly gold 
bead sent as a present by a tribe who got it from Africa 
(but it must have been Indian really); the next is a 
long flat-sided glass bead from Africa (the Tribe of 
Tegumai took it in a fight) ; then come two clay beads 
(white and green), with dots on one, and dots and 
bands on the other; next are three rather chipped 
amber beads; then three clay beads (red and white), 
two with dots, and the big one in the middle with a 
toothed pattern. Then the letters begin, and be- 
tween each letter is a little whitish clay bead with the 
letter repeated small. Here are the letters — 

A is scratched on a tooth — an elk- tusk I think. 

B is the Sacred Beaver of Tegumai on a bit of 
old glory. 

C is a pearly oyster-shell — inside front. 

164 


JUST SO STORIES 165 

D must be a sort of mussel-shell — outside front. 

E is a twist of silver wire. 

F is broken, but what remains of it is a bit of 
stag’s horn. 

G is painted black on a piece of wood. (The 
bead after G is a small shell, and not a clay 
bead. I don’t know why they did that.) 

H is a kind of a big brown cowie-shell. 

I is the inside part of a long shell ground down 
by hand. (It took Tegumai three months 
to grind it down.) 

J is a fish hook in mother-of-pearl. 

L is the broken spear in silver. (K ought to 
follow J of course, but the necklace was 
broken once and they mended it wrong.) 

K is a thin slice of bone scratched and rubbed in 
black. 

M is on a pale grey shell. 

N is a piece of what is called porphyry with a 
nose scratched on it. (Tegumai spent five 
months polishing this stone.) 

O is a piece of oyster-shell with a hole in the 
middle. 

P and Q are missing. They were lost, a long 
time ago, in a great war, and the tribe 
mended the necklace with the dried rattles 
of a rattlesnake, but no one ever found P 
and Q. That is how the saying began, 
“You must mind your P’s. and Q’s.” 

R is, of course, just a shark’s tooth. 

S is a little silver snake. 

T is the end of a small bone, polished brown and 
shiny. 

XJ is another piece of oyster-shell. 

W is a twisty piece of mother-of-pearl that they 
found inside a big mother-of-pearl shell, and 
sawed ofi with a wire dipped in sand and 


i66 


JUST SO STORIES 


water. It took Taffy a month and a half to 
polish it and drill the holes. 

X is silver wire joined in the middle with a raw 
garnet. (Taffy found the garnet.) 

Y is the carp’s tail in ivory. 

Z is a bell-shaped piece of agate marked with 
Z-shaped stripes. They made the Z-snake 
out of one of the stripes by picking out the 
soft stone and rubbing in red sand and bee’s- 
wax. Just in the mouth of the bell you see 
the clay bead repeating the Z-letter. 

These are all the letters. 

The next bead is a small round greeny lump of 
copper ore; the next is a lump of rough turquoise; 
the next is a rough gold nugget (what they call water- 
gold); the next is a melon-shaped clay bead (white 
with green spots). Then come four flat ivory pieces, 
with dots on them rather like dominoes; then come 
three stone beads, very badly worn; then two soft 
iron beads with rust-holes at the edges (they must 
have been magic, because they look very common); 
and last is a very, very old African bead, like glass — 
blue, red, white, black, and yellow. Then comes the 
loop to slip over the big silver button at the other end, 
and that is all. 

I have copied the necklace very carefully. It 
weighs one pound seven and a half ounces. The 
black squiggle behind is only put in to make the beads 
and things look better. 



167 




















































































































































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Of all the Tribe of Tegumai 

Who cut that figure none remain — 

On Merrow Down the cuckoos cry — 

The silence and the sun remain. 

But as the faithful years return 

And hearts unwounded sing again, 

Comes Taffy dancing through the fern 
To lead the Surrey spring again. 

Her brows are bound with bracken-fronds 
And golden elf-locks fly above; 

Her eyes are bright as diamonds 
And bluer than the skies above. 

In moccasins and deer-skin cloak, 
Unfearing, free and fair she flits, 

And lights her little damp-wood smoke 
To show her Daddy where she flits. 

For far — oh, very far behind, 

So far she cannot call to him, 

Comes Tegumai alone to find 
The daughter that was all to him. 


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THE CRAB THAT PLAYED WITH 
THE SEA 


EFORE the High and 
Far-Off Times, O my 
Best Beloved, came the 
Time of the Very Be- 
ginnings ; and that was 
in the days when the 
Eldest Magician was 
getting Things ready. 
First he got the Earth 
ready ; then he got the 
Sea ready; and then he told all the Animals 
that they could come out and play. And 
the Animals said, “O Eldest Magician, 
what shall we play at?” and he said, “I will 
show you.” He took the Elephant — All- 
the- Elephant-there-was — and said, “ Play at 
being an Elephant,” and All-the-Elephant- 
there-was played. He took the Beaver — All- 
the-Beaver-there-was — and said, “Play at 
171 



172 


JUST SO STORIES 

being a Beaver,” and All-the-Beaver-there- 
was played. He took the Cow — All-the- 
Cow-there-was — and said, “Play at being a 
Cow,” and All-the-Cow-there-was played. He 
took the Turtle — All-the-Turtle-there-was — 
and said, “Play at being a Turtle,” and All- 
the-Turtle-there-was played. One by one he 
took all the beasts and birds and fishes and 
told them what to play at. 

But toward evening, when people and 
things grow restless and tired, there came up 
the Man (With his own little girl-daughter?) 
— Yes, with his own best beloved little girl- 
daughter sitting upon his shoulder, and he 
said, “What is this play, Eldest Magician?” 
And the Eldest Magician said, “Ho, Son of 
Adam, this is the play of the Very Beginning; 
but you are too wise for this play.” And the 
Man saluted and said, “Yes, I am too wise 
for this play; but see that you make all the 
Animals obedient to me.” 

Now, while the two were talking together, 
Pau Amma the Crab, who was next in the 
game, scuttled off sideways and stepped into 
the Sea, saying to himself, “ I will play my 
play alone in the deep waters, and I will never 
be obedient to this son of Adam.” Nobody 


JUST SO STORIES 


i73 


saw him go away except the little girl-daughter 
where she leaned on the Man’s shoulder. And 
the play went on till there were no more 
Animals left without orders; and the Eldest 
Magician wiped the fine dust off his hands 
and walked about the world to see how the 
Animals were playing. 

He went North, Best Beloved, and he found 
All-the-Elephant-there-was digging with his 
tusks and stamping with his feet in the nice 
new clean earth that had been made ready 
for him. 

‘ ‘ Kun? ’ ’ said All-the-Elephant-there-was,. 
meaning, “Is this right?” 

“ Pay ah kun ,” said the Eldest Magician, 
meaning, “That is quite right”; and he 
breathed upon the great rocks and lumps of 
earth that All-the-Elephant-there-was had 
thrown up, and they became the great Himala- 
yan Mountains, and you can look them out on 
the map. 

He went East, and he found All-the-Cow- 
there-was feeding in the field that had been 
made ready for her, and she licked her tongue 
round a whole forest at a time, and swallowd 
it and sat down to chew her cud. 

“Kun?” said All-the-Cow-there-was. 


This is a picture of Pau Amma the Crab running 
away while the Eldest Magician was talking to the 
Man and his Little Girl Daughter. The Eldest 
Magician is sitting on his magic throne, wrapped up 
in his Magic Cloud. The three flowers in front of him 
are the three Magic Flowers. On the top of the hill 
you can see All-the-Elephant-there-was, and All-the- 
Cow-there-was, and All-the-Turtle-t here- was going 
off to play as the Eldest Magician told them. The 
Cow has a hump, because she was All-the-Cow-there- 
was ; so she had to have all there was for all the cows 
that were made afterward. Under the hill there are 
Animals who have been taught the game they were to 
play. You can see All-the-Tiger-there-was smiling 
at All-the-Bones-there-were, and you can see All-the- 
Elk-there-was, and All-the-Parrot-there-was, and All- 
the-Bunnies-there-were on the hill. The other Ani- 
mals are on the other side of the hill, so I have n’t 
drawn them. The little house up the hill is All-the- 
House-there-was. The Eldest Magician made it to 
show the Man how to make houses when he wanted to. 
The Snake round that spiky hill is All-the-Snake- 
there-was, and he is talking to All-the-Monkey-there- 
was, and the Monkey is being rude to the Snake, and 
the Snake is being rude to the Monkey. The Man 
is very busy talking to the Eldest Magician. The 
Little Girl-Daughter is looking at Pau Amma as he 
runs away. That humpy thing in the water in front 
is Pau Amma. He was n’t a common Crab in those 
days. He was a King Crab. That is why he looks 
different. The thing that looks like bricks that the 
Man is standing in, is the Big Miz-Maze. When the 
Man has done talking with the Eldest Magician he 
will walk in the Big Miz-Maze, because he has to. 
The mark on the stone under the Man’s foot is a magic 
mark; and down underneath I have drawn the three 
Magic Flowers all mixed up with the Magic Cloud. 
All this picture is Big Medicine and Strong Magic. 


174 


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I 7S 


JUST SO STORIES 


1 77 


'Pay ah kun ” said the Eldest Magician; 
and he breathed upon the bare patch where 
she had eaten, and upon the place where she 
had sat down, and one became the great 
Indian Desert, and the other became the 
Desert of Sahara, and you can look them out 
on the map. 

He went West, and he found All-the-Beaver- 
there-was making a beaver-dam across the 
mouths of broad rivers that had been got 
ready for him. 

“Kun?” said All-the-Beaver-there-was. 

“ Pay ah kun” said the Eldest Magician; 
and he breathed upon the fallen trees and the 
still water, and they became the Everglades 
in Florida, and you may look them out on the 
map. 

Then he went South and found All-the- 
Turtle-there-was scratching with his flippers 
in the sand that had been got ready for him, 
and the sand and the rocks whirled through the 
air and fell far off into the sea. 

“Kun?” said All-the-Turtle-there-was. 

“ Pay ah kun” said the Eldest Magician; 
and he breathed upon the sand and the rocks, 
where they had fallen in the sea, and they 
became the most beautiful islands of Borneo. 


i ?8 


JUST SO STORIES 


Celebes, Sumatra, Java, and the rest of the 
Malay Archipelago, and you can look them 
out on the map! 

By and by the Eldest Magician met the 
Man on the banks of the Perak River, and 
said, “Ho! Son of Adam, are all the Animals 
obedient to you?” 

“Yes,” said the Man. 

“ Is all the Earth obedient to you? ” 

“ Yes,” said the Man. 

“Is all the Sea obedient to you?” 

“No,” said the Man. “Once a day and 
once a night the Sea runs up the Perak River 
and drives the sweet-water back into the 
forest, so that my house is made wet; once 
a day and once a night it runs down the river 
and draws all the water after it, so that there 
is nothing left but mud, and my canoe is 
upset. Is that the play you told it to play?” 

“No,” said the Eldest Magician. “That is 
a new and a bad play.” 

“ Look!” said the Man, and as he spoke the 
great Sea came up the mouth of the Perak 
River, driving the river backward till it over- 
flowed all the dark forests for miles and miles, 
and flooded the Man’s house. 

“This is wrong. Launch your canoe and 


JUST SO STORIES 


179 


we will find out who is playing with the Sea,” 
said the Eldest Magician. They stepped into 
the canoe; the little girl-daughter came with 
them ; and the Man took his kris — a curving, 
wavy dagger with a blade like a flame — and 
they pushed out on the Perak River. Then 
the Sea began to run back and back, and the 
canoe was sucked out of the mouth of the 
Perak River, past Selangor, past Malacca, past 
Singapore, out and out to the Island of Bing- 
tang, as though it had been pulled by a string. 

Then the Eldest Magician stood up and 
shouted, “Ho! beasts, birds, and fishes, that 
I took between my hands at the Very Be- 
ginning and taught the play that you should 
play, which one of you is playing with the Sea ?” 

Then all the beasts, birds, and fishes said 
together, “ Eldest Magician, we play the play 
that you taught us to play — we and our 
children’s children. But not one of us plays 
with the Sea.” 

Then the Moon rose big and full over the 
water, and the Eldest Magician said to the 
hunchbacked old man who sits in the Moon 
spinning a fishing-line with which he hopes 
one day to catch the world, “Ho! Fisher of 
the Moon, are you playing with the Sea?” 


180 JUST SO STORIES 

“ No, ” said the Fisherman, “lam spinning 
a line with which I shall some day catch the 
world ; but I do not play with the Sea.” And 
he went on spinning his line. 

Now there is also a Rat up in the Moon who 
always bites the old Fisherman’s line as fast 
as it is made, and the Eldest Magician said to 
him, “Ho! Rat of the Moon, are you playing 
with the Sea?” 

And the Rat said, “ I am too busy biting 
through the line that this old Fisherman is 
spinning. I do not play with the Sea.” And 
he went on biting the line. 

Then the little girl-daughter put up her 
little soft brown arms with the beautiful white 
shell bracelets and said, “O Eldest Magician! 
when my father here talked to you at the 
Very Beginning, and I leaned upon his shoul- 
der while the beasts were being taught their 
plays, one beast went away naughtily into the 
Sea before you had taught him his play.” 

And the Eldest Magician said, “How wise 
are little children who see and are silent! 
What was the beast like?” 

And the little girl-daughter said, “ He was 
round and he was flat; and his eyes grew 
upon stalks ; and he walked sideways like this ; 


JUST SO STORIES 181 

and he was covered with strong armour upon 
his back.” 

And the Eldest Magician said, “How wise 
are little children who speak truth! Now I 
know where Pau Amma went. Give me the 
paddle!” 

So he took the paddle; but there was no 
need to paddle, for the water flowed steadily 
past all the islands till they came to the place 
called Pusat Tasek — The Heart of the Sea — 
where the great hollow is that leads down 
to the heart of the world, and in that hol- 
low grows the Wonderful Tree, Pauh Janggi, 
that bears the magic twin nuts. Then the 
Eldest Magician slid his arm up to the shoulder 
through the deep warm water, and under the 
roots of the Wonderful Tree he touched the 
broad back of Pau Amma the Crab. And 
Pau Amma settled down at the touch, and all 
the Sea rose up as water rises in a basin when 
you put your hand into it. 

“Ah!” said the Eldest Magician. “Now 
I know who has been playing with the Sea;” 
and he called out, “What are you doing, Pau 
Amma?” 

And Pau Amma, deep down below, an- 
swered, “Once a day and once a night I go 


1 82 


JUST SO STORIES 

out to look for my food. Once a day and 
once a night I return. Leave me alone.” 

Then the Eldest Magician said, “Listen, 
Pau Amma. When you go out from your 
cave the waters of the Sea pour down into 
Pusat Tasek, and all the beaches of all the 
islands are left bare, and the little fish die, 
and Raja Mo yang Kaban, the King of the 
Elephants, his legs are made muddy. When 
you come back and sit in Pusat Tasek, the 
waters of the Sea rise, and half the little islands 
are drowned, and the Man’s house is flooded, 
and Raja Abdullah, the King of the Croco- 
diles, his mouth is filled with the salt water.” 

Then Pau Amma, deep down below, laughed 
and said, “ I did not know I was so important. 
Henceforward I will go out seven times a day, 
and the waters shall never be still.” 

And the Eldest Magician said, “I cannot 
make you play the play you were meant to 
play, Pau Amma, because you escaped me at 
the Very Beginning; but if you are not afraid 
come up and we will talk about it.” 

“ I am not afraid,” said Pau Amma, and he, 
rose to the top of the Sea in the moonlight. 
There was nobody in the world so big as Pau 
Amma — for he was the King Crab of all 


JUST SO STORIES 183 

Crabs. Not a common Crab, but a King 
Crab. One side of his great shell touched the 
beach at Sarawak; the other touched the 
beach at Pahang; and he was taller than the 
smoke of three volcanoes. As he rose up 
through the branches of the Wonderful Tree 
he tore off one of the great twin-fruits — the 
magic double-kernelled nuts that make people 
young — and the little girl-daughter saw it 
bobbing alongside the canoe, and pulled it in 
and began to pick out the soft eyes of it with 
her little golden scissors. 

“Now,” said the Magician, “Make a Magic, 
Pau Amma, to show that you are really 
important.” 

Pau Amma rolled his eyes and waved his 
legs, but he could only stir up the Sea, because, 
though he was a King Crab, he was nothing 
more than a Crab and the Eldest Magician 
laughed. 

“You are not so important after all, Pau 
Amma,” he said. “Now, let me try,” and he 
made a Magic with his left hand — with just 
the little finger of his left hand — and — lo 
and behold, Best Beloved, Pau Amnia’s hard, 
blue-green-black shell fell off him as a husk 
falls off a cocoa-nut, and Pau Amma was left 


This is the picture of Pau Amma the Crab rising out 
of the sea as tall as the smoke of three volcanoes. I 
have n’t drawn the three volcanoes, because Pau 
Amma was so big. Pau Amma is trying to make a 
Magic, but he is only a silly old King Crab, and so 
he can’t do anything. You can see he is all legs and 
claws and empty hollow shell. The canoe is the 
canoe that the Man and the Girl- Daughter and the 
Eldest Magician sailed from the Perak River in. The 
Sea is all black and bobbly, because Pau Amma has 
just risen up out of Pusat Tasek. Pusat Tasek is 
underneath, so I have n’t drawn it. The Man is 
waving his curvy kris-kmie at Pau Amma. The 
Little Girl-Daughter is sitting quietly in the middle 
of the canoe. She knows she is quite safe with her 
Daddy. The Eldest Magician is standing up at the 
other end of the canoe beginning to make a Magic. 
He has left his magic throne on the beach, and he has 
taken off his clothes so as not to get wet, and he has 
left the Magic Cloud behind too, so as not to tip the 
boat over. The thing that looks like another little 
canoe outside the real canoe is called an outrigger. 
It is a piece of wood tied to sticks, and it prevents the 
canoe from being tipped over. The canoe is made out 
of one piece of wood, and there is a paddle at one end 
of it. 


184 





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1 


JUST SO STORIES 


187 


all soft — soft as the little crabs that you 
sometimes find on the beach, Best Beloved. 

“ Indeed, you are very important/’ said the 
Eldest Magician. “Shall I ask the Man here 
to cut you with kris f Shall I send for Raja 
Moyang Kaban, the King of the Elephants, 
to pierce you with his tusks, or shall I call 
Raja Abdullah, the King of the Crocodiles, to 
bite you?” 

And Pau Amma said, “I am ashamed! 
Give me back my hard shell and let me go 
back to Pusat Tasek, and I will only stir out 
once a day and once a night to get my food.” 

And the Eldest Magician said, “No, Pau 
Amma, I will not give you back your shell, for 
you will grow bigger and prouder and stronger, 
and perhaps you will forget your promise, and 
you will play with the Sea once more.” 

Then Pau Amma said, “What shall I do? 
I am so big that I can only hide in Pusat Tasek, 
and if I go anywhere else, all soft as I am now, 
the sharks and the dogfish will eat me. And 
if I go to Pusat Tasek, all soft as I am now, 
though I may be safe, I can never stir out to 
get my food, and so I shall die.” Then he 
waved his legs and lamented. 

“Listen, Pau Amma,” said the Eldest 


i88 


JUST SO STORIES 

Magician. “ I cannot make you play the play 
you were meant to play, because you escaped 
me at the Very Beginning; but if you choose 
I can make every stone and every hole and 
every bunch of weed in all the seas a safe 
Pusat Tasek for you and your children for 
always.” 

Then Pau Amma said, “That is good, but I 
do not choose yet. Look ! there is that Man 
who talked to you at the Very Beginning. 
If he had not taken up your attention I should 
not have grown tired of waiting and run away, 
and all this would never have happened. 
What will he do for me? ” 

And the Man said, “If you choose, I will 
make a Magic, so that both the deep water and 
the dry ground will be a home for you and 
your children — so that you shall be able to 
hide both on the land and in the seas.” 

And Pau Amma said, “ I do not choose yet. 
Look! there is that girl who saw me running 
away at the Very Beginning. If she had 
spoken then, the Eldest Magician would have 
called me back, and all this would never have 
happened. What will she do for me?” 

And the little girl-daughter said, “This is a 
good nut that I am eating. If you choose, I 


JUST SO STORIES 


189 


will make a Magic and I will give you this 
pair of scissors, very sharp and strong, so that 
you and your children can eat cocoa-nuts like 
this all day long when you come up from the 
Sea to the land ; or you can dig a Pusat Tasek 
for yourself with the scissors that belong to 
you when there is no stone or hole near by; 
and when the earth is too hard, by the help 
of these same scissors you can run up a tree.’' 

And Pau Amma said, “ I do not choose yet, 
for, all soft as I am, these gifts would not help 
me. Give me back my shell, O Eldest Magi- 
cian, and then I will play your play.” 

And the Eldest Magician said, “ I will give 
it back, Pau Amma, for eleven months of the 
year ; but on the twelfth month of every year 
it shall grow soft again, to remind you and all 
your children that I can make Magics, and to 
keep you humble, Pau Amma; for I see that 
if you can run both under the water and on 
land, you will grow too bold; and if you can 
climb trees and crack nuts and dig holes with 
your scissors, you will grow too greedy, Pau 
Amma.” 

Then Pau Amma thought a little and said, “ I 
have made my choice. I will take all the gifts. ’ • 

Then the Eldest Magician made a Magic 


190 JUST SO STORIES 

with the right hand, with all five fingers of 
his right hand, and lo and behold, Best Be- 
loved, Pau Amma grew smaller and smaller 
and smaller, till at last there was only a little 
green crab swimming in the water alongside 
the canoe, crying in a very small voice, “Give 
me the scissors!” 

And the girl-daughter picked him up on the 
palm of her little brown hand, and sat him in 
the bottom of the canoe and gave him her 
scissors, and he waved them in his little arms, 
and opened them and shut them and snapped 
them, and said, “ I can eat nuts. I can crack 
shells. I can dig holes. I can climb trees. 
I can breathe in the dry air, and I can find a 
safe Pusat Tasek under every stone. I did 
not know I was so important. Kun?” (Is 
this right?) 

“ Payah kun,” said the Eldest Magician, 
and he laughed and gave him his blessing; 
and little Pau Amma scuttled over the side of 
the canoe into the water ; and he was so tiny 
that he could have hidden under the shadow 
of a dry leaf on land or of a dead shell at the 
bottom of the sea. 

“Was that well done?” said the Eldest 
Magician. 


JUST SO STORIES 


191 

‘"Yes,” said the Man. “But now we must 
go back to Perak, and that is a weary way to 
paddle. If we had waited till Pau Amma had 
gone out of Pusat Tasek and come home, the 
water would have carried us there by itself.” 

“You are lazy,” said the Eldest Magician. 
“So your children shall be lazy. They shall 
be the laziest people in the world. They shall 
be called the Malazy — the lazy people;” 
and he held up his finger to the Moon and said 
“O Fisherman, here is the Man too lazy to 
row home. Pull his canoe home with your 
line, Fisherman.” 

“No,” said the Man. “If I am to be lazy 
all my days, let the Sea work for me twice a 
day for ever. That will save paddling.” 

And the Eldest Magician laughed and said, 
“ Pay ah kun ” (That is right). 

And the Rat of the Moon stopped biting 
the line; and the Fisherman let his line down 
till it touched the Sea, and he pulled the whole 
deep Sea along, past the Island of B intang, 
past Singapore, past Malacca, past Selangor, 
till the canoe whirled into the mouth of the 
Perak River again. 

“ Kunf ” said the Fisherman of the Moon. 

“ Payah kun” said the Eldest Magician, 


192 


JUST SO, STORIES 

“See now that you pull the Sea twice a day 
and twice a night for ever, so that the Malazy 
fishermen may be saved paddling. But be 
careful not to do it too hard, or I shall make 
a Magic on you as I did to Pau Amma.” 

Then they all went up the Perak River and 
went to bed, Best Beloved. 

Now listen and attend! 

From that day to this the Moon has always 
pulled the Sea up and down and made what 
we call the tides. Sometimes the Fisher 
of the Sea pulls a little too hard, and then we 
get spring-tides; and sometimes he pulls a 
little too softly, and then we get what are 
called neap-tides; but nearly always he is 
careful, because of the Eldest Magician. 

And Pau Amma? You can see when you 
go to the beach, how all Pau Amma’s babies 
make little Pusat Taseks for themselves under 
every stone and bunch of weed on the sands; 
you can see them waving their little scissors; 
and in some parts of the world they truly 
live on the dry land and run up the palm trees 
and eat cocoa-nuts, exactly as the girl- 
daughter promised. But once a year all Pau 
Ammas must shake off their hard armour and 
be soft — to remind them of what the Eldest 


JUST SO STORIES 


x 93 


Magician could do. And so it is n’t fair to 
kill or hunt Pau Amma’s babies just because 
old Pau Amma was stupidly rude a very long 
time ago. 

Oh yes! And Pau Amma’s babies hate 
being taken out of their little Pusat Taseks 
and brought home in pickle-bottles. That 
is why they nip you with their scissors, and it 
serves you right ! 



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China-going P. and O.’s 

Pass Pau Amina's playground close. 

And his Pusat Tasek lies 
Near the track of most B.I.’s. 

U.Y.K. and N.D.L. 

Know Pau Amina’ s home as well 
As the fisher of the Sea knows 
“ Bens,” M.M.’s, and Rubattinos. 

But (and this is rather queer) 

A.T.L.’s can not come here; 

O. and O. and D.O.A. 

Must go round another way, 

Orient, Anchor, Bibby, Hall, 

Never go that way at all. 

U.C.S. would have a fit 
If it found itself on it. 

And if “Beavers” took their cargoes 
To Penang instead of Lagoes, 

Or a fat Shaw-Savill bore 
Passengers to Singapore, 

Or a White Star were to try a 
Little trip to Sourabaya, 

Or a B.S.A. went on 
Past Natal to Cheribon, 

Then great Mr. Lloyds would come 
With a wire and drag them home! 

You’ll know what my riddle means 
When you ’ve eaten mangosteens. 

Or if you can’t wait till then, ask them to let you 
have the outside page of the T imes ; turn over to page 
2, where it is marked “ Shipping” on the top left hand; 
then take the Atlas (and that is the finest picture- 
book in the world) and see how the names of the places 
that the steamers go to fit into the names of the places 
on the map. Any steamer- kiddy ought to be able 
to do that; but if you can’t read, ask some one to 
show it you. 


195 














































































y i 






























THE CAT THAT WALKED BY 
HIMSELF 



EAR and attend and 


listen; for this 
x befell and be- 
4 happened and 
^became and 
was, 0 my Best 
Beloved, when 


the Tame animals were wild. The Dog was 
wild, and the Horse was wild, and the Cow was 
wild, and the Sheep was wild, and the Pig was 
wild — as wild as wild could be — and they 
walked in the Wet Wild Woods by their wild 
lones. But the wildest of all the wild animals 
was the Cat. He walked by himself, and all 
places were alike to him. 

Of course the Man was wild too. He was 
dreadfully wild. He did n’t even begin to be 
tame till he met the Woman, and she told him 
that she did not like living in his wild ways. 


197 


198 JUST SO STORIES 

She picked out a nice dry Cave, instead of a 
heap of wet leaves, to lie down in; and she 
strewed clean sand on the floor ; and she lit a 
nice fire of wood at the back of the Cave ; and 
she hung a dried wild-horse skin, tail-down, 
across the opening of the Cave; and she said, 
“ Wipe you feet, dear, when you come in, and 
now we’ll keep house.” 

That night, Best Beloved, they ate wild 
sheep roasted on the hot stones, and flavoured 
with wild garlic and wild pepper; and wild 
duck stuffed with wild rice and wild fenugreek 
and wild coriander ; and marrow-bones of wild 
oxen; and wild cherries, and wild grenadillas. 
Then the Man went to sleep in front of the 
fire ever so happy; but the Woman sat up, 
combing her hair. She took the bone of the 
shoulder of mutton — the big fat blade-bone 
— and she looked at the wonderful marks on 
it, and she threw more wood on the fire, and 
she made a Magic. She made the First 
Singing Magic in the world. 

Out in the Wet Wild Woods all the wild 
animals gathered together where they could 
see the light of the fire a long way off, and 
they wondered what it meant. 

Then Wild Horse stamped with his wild 


JUST SO STORIES 


199 


foot and said, “O my Friends and 0 my 
Enemies, why have the Man and the Woman 
made that great light in that great Cave, and 
what harm will it do us ? ” 

Wild Dog lifted up his wild nose and smelled 
the smell of roast mutton, and said, “I will 
go up and see and look, and say ; for I think it 
is good. Cat, come with me.” 

“Nenni!” said the Cat. “I am the Cat 
who walks by himself, and all places are alike 
tome. I will not come.” 

“Then we can never be friends again,” said 
Wild Dog, and he trotted off to the Cave. But 
when he had gone a little way the Cat said to 
himself, “All places are alike to me. Why 
should I not go too and see and look and come 
away at my own liking.” So he slipped after 
Wild Dog softly, very softly, and hid himself 
where he could hear everything. 

When Wild Dog reached the mouth of the 
Cave he lifted up the dried horse-skin with his 
nose and sniffed the beautiful smell of the 
roast mutton, and the Woman, looking at the 
blade-bone, heard him, and laughed, and said, 
“Here comes the first. Wild Thing out of 
the Wild Woods, what do you want?” 

Wild Dog said, “0 my Enemy and Wife of 


This is the picture of the Cave where the Man and the 
Woman lived first of all. It was really a very nice 
Cave, and much warmer than it looks. The Man had 
a canoe. It is on the edge of the river, being soaked 
in the water to make it swell up. The tattery -looking 
thing across the river is the Man’s salmon-net to 
catch salmon with. There are nice clean stones lead- 
ing up from the river to the mouth of the Cave, so that 
the Man and the Woman could go down for water 
without getting sand between their toes. The things 
like black-beetles far down the beach are really trunks 
of dead trees that floated down the river from the Wet 
Wild Woods on the other bank. The Man and the 
Woman used to drag them out and dry them and cut 
them up for firewood. I have n’t drawn the horse- 
hide curtain at the mouth of the Cave, because the 
Woman has just taken it down to be cleaned. All 
those little smudges on the sand between the Cave 
and the river are the marks of the Woman’s feet and 
the Man’s feet. 

The Man and the Woman are both inside the Cave 
eating their dinner. They went to another cosier 
Cave when the Baby came, because the Baby used to 
crawl down to the river and fall in, and the Dog had 
to pull him out. 


200 



201 


* 




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•» 

# 

u" 


* 

















- 



















































„ .t 















✓ 

'*T 


•-I 




JUST SO STORIES 203 

my Enemy, what is this that smells so good in 
the Wild Woods?” 

Then the Woman picked up a roasted 
mutton-bone and threw it to Wild Dog, and 
said, “Wild Thing out of the Wild Woods, 
taste and try.” Wild Dog gnaw T ed the bone 
and it was more delicious than anything he 
had ever tasted, and he said, “O my Enemy 
and Wife of my Enemy, give me another.” 

The Woman said, “Wild Thing out of the 
Wild Woods, help my Man to hunt through 
the day and guard this Cave at night, and I 
will give you as many roast bones as you 
need.” 

“Ah!” said the Cat, listening. This is a 
very wise Woman, but she is not so wise as 
I am.” 

Wild Dog crawled into the Cave and laid 
his head on the Woman’s lap, and said, “O 
my Friend and Wife of my Friend, I will help 
your Man to hunt through the day, and at 
night I will guard your Cave.” 

“Ah!” said the Cat, listening. “That is 
a very foolish Dog.” And he went back 
through the Wet Wild Woods waving his 
wild tail, and walking by his wild lone. But 
he never told anybody. 


204 


JUST SO STORIES 


When the Man waked up he said, “What is 
Wild Dog doing here?” And the Woman 
said, “His name is not Wild Dog any more, 
but the First Friend, because he will be our 
friend for always and always and always. 
Take him with you when you go hunting.” 

Next night the Woman cut great green 
armfuls of fresh grass from the water- 
meadows, and dried it before the fire, so that 
it smelt like new-mown hay, and she sat at 
the mouth of the Cave and plaited a halter 
out of horse-hide, and she looked at the 
shoulder of mutton-bone — at the big broad 
blade-bone — and she made a Magic. She 
made the Second Singing Magic in the 
world. 

Out in the Wild Woods all the wild animals 
wondered what had happened to Wild Dog, 
and at last Wild Horse stamped with his 
foot and said, “ I will go and see and say why 
Wild Dog has not returned. Cat, come with 
me.” 

“ Nenni ! ’ ’ said the Cat. “ I am the Cat who 
walks by himself, and all places are alike to 
me. I will not come.” But all the same he 
followed Wild .Horse softly, very softly, and 
hid himself where he could hear everything. 


JUST SO STORIES 


305 

When the Woman heard Wild Horse trip- 
ping and stumbling on his long mane, she 
laughed and said, “Here comes the second. 
Wild Thing out of the Wild Woods what do 
you want?” 

Wild Horse said, “O my Enemy and Wife 
of my Enemy, where is Wild Dog?” 

The Woman laughed, and picked up the 
blade-bone and looked at it, and said, “Wild 
Thing out of the Wild Woods, you did not 
come here for Wild Dog, but for the sake of 
this good grass.” 

And Wild Horse, tripping and stumbling on 
his long mane, said, “That is true; give it me 
to eat.” 

The Woman said, “Wild Thing out of the 
Wild Woods, bend your wild head and wear 
what I give you, and you shall eat the wonder- 
ful grass three times a day.” 

“Ah, ’ ’ said the Cat, listening, “ this is a clever 
Woman, but she is not so clever as I am.” 

Wild Horse bent his wild head, and the 
Woman slipped the plaited hide halter over it, 
and Wild Horse breathed on the Woman’s 
feet and said, “ O my Mistress, and Wife of my 
Master, I will be your servant for the sake of 
the wonderful grass.” 


This is the picture of the Cat that Walked by Himself, 
walking by his wild lone through the Wet Wild Woods 
and waving his wild tail. There is nothing else in the 
picture except some toadstools. They had to grow 
there because the woods were so wet. The lumpy 
thing on the low branch is n’t a bird. It is moss that 
grew there because the Wild Woods were so wet. 

Underneath the truly picture is a picture of the cosey 
Cave that the Man and the Woman went to after the 
Baby came. It was their summer Cave, and they 
planted wheat in front of it. The Man is riding on the 
Horse to find the Cow and bring her back to the Cave 
to be milked. He is holding up his hand to call the 
Dog, who has swum across to the other side of the 
river, looking for rabbits. 


205 


I 



907 


/ 










2og 


JUST SO STORIES 

“Ah,” said the Cat, listening, “that is a 
very foolish Horse.” And he went back 
through the Wet Wild Woods, waving his 
wild tail and walking by his wild lone. But 
he never told anybody. 

When the Man and the Dog came back 
from hunting, the Man said. “ What is Wild 
Horse doing here?” And the Woman said, 
“ His name is not Wild Horse any more, but 
the First Servant, because he will carry us 
from place to place for always and always 
and always. Ride on his back when you go 
hunting.” 

Next day, holding her wild head high that 
her wild horns should not catch in the wild 
trees, Wild Cow came up to the Cave, and the 
Cat followed, and hid himself just the same as 
before; and everything happened just the 
same as before; and the Cat said the same 
things as before, and when Wild Cow had 
promised to give her milk to the Woman every 
day in exchange for the wonderful grass, the 
Cat went back through the Wet Wild Woods 
waving his wild tail and walking by his wild 
lone, just the same as before. But he never 
told anybody. And when the Man and the 
Horse and the Dog came home from hunting 


210 


JUST SO STORIES 

and asked the same questions same as before, 
the Woman said, “Her name is not Wild Cow 
any more, but the Giver of Good Food. She 
will give us the warm white milk for always 
and always and always, and I will take care 
of her while you and the First Friend and the 
First Servant go hunting.’ 1 

Next day the Cat waited to see if any other 
Wild thing would go up to the Cave, but no 
one moved in the Wet Wild Woods, so the 
Cat walked there by himself ; and he saw the 
Woman milking the Cow, and he saw the light 
of the fire in the Cave, and he smelt the smell 
of the warm white milk. 

Cat said, “O my Enemy and Wife of my 
Enemy, where did Wild Cow go?” 

The Woman laughed and said, “ Wild Thing 
out of the Wild Woods, go back to the Woods 
again, for I have braided up my hair, and I 
have put away the magic blade-bone, and we 
have no more need of either friends or servants 
in our Cave.” 

Cat said, “ I am not a friend, and I am not 
a servant. I am the Cat who walks by him- 
self, and I wish to come into your cave.” 

Woman said, “Then why did you not come 
with First Friend on the first night? ” 


JUST SO STORIES 


2 1 1 


Cat grew very angry and said, “ Has Wild 
Dog told tales of me?” 

Then the Woman laughed and said, ‘‘You are 
the Cat who walks by himself, and all places 
are alike to you. Your are neither a friend 
nor a servant. You have said it yourself. 
Go away and walk by yourself in all places 
alike.” 

Then Cat pretended to be sorry and said, 
“Must I never come into the Cave? Must 
I never sit by the warm fire? Must I never 
drink the warm white milk? You are very 
wise and very beautiful. You should not be 
cruel even to a Cat.” 

Woman said, “ I knew I was wise, but I did 
not know I was beautiful. So I will make a 
bargain with you. If ever I say one word in 
your praise you may come into the Cave.” 

“And if you say two words in my praise?” 
said the Cat. 

“I never shall,” said the Woman, “but if I 
say two words in your praise, you may sit by 
the fire in the Cave.” 

“And if you say three words?” said the 

Cat. 

“I never shall,” said the Woman, “but if 
I say three words in your praise, you may 


■212 


JUST SO STORIES 

drink the warm white milk three times a day 
for always and always and always." 

Then the Cat arched his back and said, 
“Now let the Curtain at the mouth of the 
Cave, and the Fire at the back of the Cave, 
and the Milk-pots that stand beside the Fire, 
remember what my Enemy and the Wife of 
my Enemy has said." And he went away 
through the Wet Wild Woods waving his 
wild tail and walking by his wild lone. 

That night when the Man and the Horse 
and the Dog came home from hunting, the 
Woman did not tell them of the bargain that 
she had made with the Cat, because she was 
afraid that they might not like it. 

Cat went far and far away and hid himself 
in the Wet Wild Woods by his wild lone for a 
long time till the Woman forgot all about him. 
Only the Bat — the little upside-down Bat — 
that hung inside the Cave, knew where Cat 
hid; and every evening Bat would fly to Cat 
with news of what was happening. 

One evening Bat said, “There is a Baby in 
the Cave. He is new and pink and fat and 
small, and the Woman is very fond of him." 

“Ah," said the Cat, listening, “but what 
is the Baby fond of?" 


JUST SO STORIES 


213 


“ He is fond of things that are soft and 
tickle,” said the Bat. “He is fond of warm 
things to hold in his arms when he goes to 
sleep. He is fond of being played with. He 
is fond of all those things.” 

“Ah,” said the Cat, listening, “then my 
time has come.” 

Next night Cat walked through the Wet 
Wild Woods and hid very near the Cave till 
morning-time, and Man and Dog and Horse 
went hunting. The Woman was busy cook- 
ing that morning, and the Baby cried and 
interrupted. So she carried him outside the 
Cave and gave him a handful of pebbles to 
play with. But still the Baby cried. 

Then the Cat put out his paddy paw and 
patted the Baby on the cheek, and it cooed; 
and the Cat rubbed against its fat knees and 
tickled it under its fat chin with his tail. And 
the Baby laughed; and the Woman heard 
him and smiled. 

Then the Bat — the little upside-down 
Bat — that hung in the mouth of the Cave 
said, “ O my Hostess and Wife of my Host and 
Mother of my Host’s Son, a Wild Thing from 
the Wild Woods is most beautifully playing 
with your Baby,” 


214 


JUST SO STORIES 

A blessing on that Wild Thing whoever 
he may be,” said the Woman, straightening 
her back, “ for I was a busy woman this morn- 
ing and he has done me a service.” 

That very minute and second Best Beloved, 
the dried horse-skin Curtain that was stretched 
tail-down at the mouth of the Cave fell down 
— woosh ! — because it remembered the bar- 
gain she had made with the Cat, and when 
the Woman went to pick it up — lo and be- 
hold ! — the Cat was sitting quite comfy 
inside the Cave. 

“ O my Enemy and Wife of my Enemy and 
Mother of my Enemy,” said the Cat, “it is 
I: for you have spoken a word in my praise, 
and now I can sit within the Cave for always 
and always and always. But still I am the 
Cat who walks by himself, and all places are 
> alike to me.” 

The Woman was very angry, and shut her 
lips tight ana tooK up ner spmnmg-wheel and 
began to spin. 

But the Baby cried because the Cat had 
gone away, and the Woman could not hush it, 
for it struggled and kicked and grew black in 
the face. 

“ O my Enemy and Wife of my Enemy and 


JUST SO STORIES 


2iS 


Mother of my Enemy/’ said the Cat, “take 
a strand of the wire that you are spinning and 
tie it to your spinning-whorl and drag it along 
the floor, and I will show you a magic that 
shall make your Baby laugh as loudly as he 
is now crying.” 

“I will do so,” said the Woman, “because 
I am at my wits’ end; but I will not thank 
you for it.” 

She tied the thread to the little clay spindle- 
whorl and drew it across the floor, and the Cat 
ran after it and patted it with his paws and 
rolled head over heels, and tossed it backward 
over his shoulder and chased it between his 
hind-legs and pretended to lose it, and pounced 
down upon it again, till the Baby laughed as 
loudly as it had been crying, and scrambled 
after the Cat and frolicked all over the Cave 
till it grew tired and settled down to sleep 
with the Cat in its arms. 

“Now,” said the Cat, “I will sing the Baby 
a song that shall keep him asleep for an hour.” 
A.nd he began to purr, loud and low, low and 
loud, till the Baby fell fast asleep. The Woman 
smiled as she looked down upon the two of 
them and said, “That was wonderfully done. 
No question but you are very clever, O Cat.” 


2l6 


JUST SO STORIES 

That very minute and second, Best Be- 
loved, the smoke of the fire at the back of the 
Cave came down in clouds from the roof — 
puff! — because it remembered the bargain 
she had made with the Cat, and when it had 
cleared away — lo and behold ! — the Cat was 
sitting quite comfy close to the fire. 

“ O my Enemy and Wife of my Enemy and 
Mother of my Enemy,” said the Cat, “it is I, 
for you have spoken a second word in my 
praise, and now I can sit by the warm fire at 
the back of the Cave for always and always 
and always. But still I am the Cat who walks 
by himself, and all places are alike to me.” 

Then the Woman was very very angry, and 
let down her hair and put more wood on the 
fire and brought out the broad blade-bone of 
the shoulder of mutton and began to make a 
Magic that should prevent her from saying a 
third word in praise of the Cat. It was not a 
Singing Magic, Best Beloved, it was a Still 
Magic; and by and by the Cave grew so still 
that a little wee-wee mouse crept out of a 
corner and ran across the floor. 

“ O my Enemy and Wife of my Enemy and 
Mother of my Enemy,” said the Cat, “is that 
little mouse part of your magic?” 


JUST SO STORIES 


217 


“Ouh! Chee! No indeed l” said the Woman, 
and she dropped the blade-bone and jumped 
upon the footstool in front of the fire and 
braided up her hair very quick for fear that the 
mouse should run up it. 

“Ah,” said the Cat, watching, “then the 
mouse will do me no harm if I eat it?” 

“No,” said the Woman, braiding up her 
hair, “ eat it quickly and I will ever be grateful 
to you.” 

Cat made one jump and caught the little 
mouse, and the Woman said, “A hundred 
thanks. Even the First Friend is not quick 
enough to catch little mice as you have done. 
You must be very wise.” 

That very moment and second, O Best 
Beloved, the Milk-pot that stood by the fire 
cracked in two pieces — ffft — because it 
remembered the bargain she had made with 
the Cat, and when the Woman jumped down 
from the footstool — lo and behold ! — the 
Cat was lapping up the warm white milk that 
lay in one of the broken pieces. 

“ O my Enemy and Wife of my Enemy and 
Mother of my Enemy,” said the Cat, “it is I; 
for you have spoken three words in my praise, 
and now I can drink the warm white milk 


21 8 


JUST SO STORIES 

three times a day for always and always and 
always. But still I am the Cat who walks by 
himself, and all places are alike to me/’ 

Then the Woman laughed and set the Cat 
a bowl of the warm white milk and said, “O 
Cat, you are as clever as a man, but remember 
that your bargain was not made with the Man 
or the Dog, and I do not know what they will 
do when they come home.” 

“What is that to me?” said the Cat. “If 
I have my place in the Cave by the fire and 
my warm white milk three times a day I do 
not care what the Man or the Dog can do.” 

That evening when the Man and the Dog 
came into the Cave, the Woman told them all 
the story of the bargain while the Cat sat by 
the fire and smiled. Then the Man said, 
“Yes, but he has not made a bargain with 
me or with all proper Men after me.” Then 
he took off his two leather boots and he took 
up his little stone axe (that makes three) and 
he fetched a piece of wood and a hatchet (that 
is five altogether), and he set them out in a 
row and he said, “Now we will make our 
bargain. If you do not catch mice when you 
are in the Cave for always and always and 
always, I will throw these five things at you 


JUST SO STORIES 


219 

whenever I see you, and so shall all proper 
Men do after me.” 

“Ah,” said the Woman, listening, “this 
is a very clever Cat, but he is not so clever as 
my Man.” 

The Cat counted the five things (and they 
looked very knobby) and he said, “ I will catch 
mice when I am in the Cave for always and 
always and always ; but still I am the Cat who 
walks by himself, and all places are alike to 
me. 

“ Not when I am near,” said the Man. “ If 
you had not said that last I would have put 
sll these things away for always and always 
and always ; but I am now going to throw my 
two boots and my little stone axe (that makes 
three) at you whenever I meet you. And 
so shall all proper Men do after me ! ” 

Then the Dog said, “Wait a minute. He 
has not made a bargain with me or with all 
proper Dogs after me.” And he showed his 
teeth and said, “If you are not kind to the 
Baby while I am in the Cave for always and 
always and always, I will hunt you till I catch 
you, and when I catch you I will bite you. 
And so shall all proper Dogs do after me.” 

“Ah,” said the Woman, listening, “this is 


220 JUST SO STORIES 

a very clever Cat, but he is not so clever as the 
Dog.” 

Cat counted the Dog’s teeth (and they 
looked very pointed) and he said, “ I will be 
kind to the Baby while I am in the Cave, as 
long as he does not pull my tail too hard, for 
always and always and always. But still I 
am the Cat that walks by himself, and all 
places are alike to me.” 

“ Not when I am near,” said the Dog. “ If 
you had not said that last I would have shut 
my mouth for always and always and always ; 
but now I am going to hunt you up a tree 
whenever I meet you. And so shall all proper 
Dogs do after me.” 

Then the Man threw his two boots and his 
little stone axe (that makes three) at the Cat, 
and the Cat ran out of the Cave and the Dog 
chased him up a tree; and from that day to 
this, Best Beloved, three proper Men out of 
five will always throw things at a Cat when- 
ever they meet him, and all proper Dogs will 
chase him up a tree. But the Cat keeps his 
side of the bargain too. He will kill mice 
and he will be kind to Babies when he is in 
the house, just as long as they do not pull his 
tail too hard. But when he has done that, and 


JUST SO STORIES 


221 


between times, and when the moon gets up 
and night comes, he is the Cat that walks by 
himself, and all places are alike to him. Then 
he goes out to the Wet Wild Woods or up the 
Wet Wild Trees or on the Wet Wild Roofs, 
waving his wild tail and walking by his wild 
lone. 































Pussy can sit by the fire and sing. 

Pussy can climb a tree, 

Or play with a silly old cork and string 
To ’muse herself, not me. 

But I like Binkie my dog, because 
He knows how to behave; 

So, Binkie's the same as the First Friend was 
And I am the Man in the Cave. 

Pussy will play man-Friday till 
It ’s time to wet her paw 

And make her walk on the window-sill 
(For the footprint Crusoe saw) ; 

Then she fluffles her tail and mews, 

And scratches and won’t attend. 

But Binkie will play whatever I choose, 

And he is my true First Friend. 

Pussy will rub my knees with her head. 
Pretending she loves me hard; 

But the very minute I go to my bed 
Pussy runs out in the yard, 

And there she stays till the morning-light; 

So I know it is only pretend; 

But Binkie , he snores at my feet all night, 

And he is my Firstest Friend! 


223 


I 


THE BUTTERFLY THAT 
STAMPED 

HIS, O my Best Beloved, 
is a story — a new and 
a wonderful story — a 
story quite different from 
the other stories — a 
story about The Most 
Wise Sovereign Sulei- 
man-bin-Daoud — Solo- 
mon the Son of David. 

There are three hundred and fifty-five 
stories about Suleiman-bin-Daoud ; but this is 
not one of them. It is not the story of the 
Lapwing who found the Water ; or the Hoopoe 
who shaded Suleiman-bin-Daoud from the 
heat. It is not the story of the Glass Pave- 
ment, or the Ruby with the Crooked Hole, 
or the Gold Bars of Balkis. It is the story of 
the Butterfly that Stamped. 

Now attend all over again and listen! 

225 



226 


JUST SO STORIES 

Suleiman-bin-Daoud was wise. He under- 
stood what the beasts said, what the birds 
said, what the fishes said, and what the insects 
said. He understood what the rocks said 
deep under the earth when they bowed in 
toward each other and groaned; and he 
understood what the trees said when they 
rustled in the middle of the morning. He 
understood everything, from the bishop on 
the bench to the hyssop on the wall, and 
Balkis, his Head Queen, the Most Beautiful 
Queen Balkis, was nearly as wise as he was. 

Suleiman-bin-Daoud was strong. Upon the 
third finger of the right hand he wore a ring. 
When he turned it once, Afrits and Djinns 
came out of the earth to do whatever he told 
them. When he turned it twice, Fairies came 
down from the sky to do whatever he told 
them; and when he turned it three times, the 
very great angel Azrael of the Sword came 
dressed as a water-carrier, and told him the 
news of the three worlds — Above — Below 
— and Here. 

And yet Suleiman- bin Daoud was not proud. 
He very seldom showed off, and when he did 
he was sorry for it. Once he tried to feed all 
the animals in all the world in one day, but 


JUST SO STORIES 


227 


when the food was ready an Animal came out 
of the deep sea and ate it up in three mouth- 
fuls. Suleiman-bin-Daoud was very surprised 
and said, * ‘0 Animal, who are you ? ’ 9 And the 
Animal said, “0 King, live for ever! I am 
the smallest of thirty thousand brothers, and 
our home is at the bottom of the sea. We 
heard that you were going to feed all the 
animals in all the world, and my brothers 
sent me to ask when dinner would be ready.” 
Suleiman-bin-Daoud was more surprised than 
ever and said, “ 0 Animal, you have eaten all 
the dinner that I made ready for all the animals 
in the world.” And the Animal said, “0 
King, live for ever, but do you really call that 
a dinner? Where I come from we each eat 
twice as much as that between meals.” Then 
Suleiman-bin-Daoud fell flat on his face and 
said, “O Animal! I gave that dinner to 
show what a great and rich king I was, and hoc 
hpcause I really wanted to be kind to the 
cuszmais. Now 1 am ashamed, and it serves 
me right.” Suleiman-bin-Daoud was a really 
truly wise man, Best Beloved. After that 
he never forgot that it was silly to show 
off; and now the real story part of my story 
begins. 


'This is the picture of the Animal that came out of the 
sea and ate up all the food that Suleiman-bin-Daoud 
had made ready for all the animals in all the world. 
He was really quite a nice Animal, and his Mummy 
was very fond of him and of his twenty-nine thousand 
nine hundred and ninety-nine other brothers that 
lived at the bottom of the sea. You know that he 
was the smallest of them all, and so his name was 
Small Porgies. He ate up all those boxes and packets 
and bales and things that had been got ready for all 
the animals, without ever once taking off the lids or 
untying the strings, and it did not hurt him at all. 
The sticky-up masts behind the boxes of food belong 
to Suleiman-bin-Daoud’s ships. They were busy 
bringing more food when Small Porgies came ashore. 
He did not eat the ships. They stopped unloading 
the foods and instantly sailed away to sea till Small 
Porgies had quite finished eating. You can see some 
of the ships beginning to sail away by Small Porgies’ 
shoulder. I have not drawn Suleiman-bin-Daoud, 
but he is just outside the picture, very much aston- 
ished. The bundle hanging from the mast of the 
ship in the corner is really a package of wet dates for 
parrots to eat. I don’t know the names of the ships. 
That is all there is in that picture. 


238 



220 




JUST SO STORIES 


231 


He married ever so many wives. He mar- 
ried nine hundred and ninety-nine wives, 
besides the Most Beautiful Balkis; and they 
all lived in a great golden palace in the middle 
of a lovely garden with fountains. He did n’t 
really want nine-hundred and ninety-nine 
wives, but in those days everybody married 
ever so many wives, and of course the King 
had to marry ever so many more just to show 
that he was the King. 

Some of the wives were nice, but some were 
simply horrid, and the horrid ones quarrelled 
with the nice ones and made them horrid too, 
and then they would all quarrel with Suleiman- 
bin-Daoud, and that was horrid for him. But 
Balkis the Most Beautiful never quarrelled 
with Suleiman-bin-Daoud. She loved him 
too much. She sat in her rooms in the Golden 
Palace, or walked in the Palace garden, and 
was truly sorry for him. 

Of course if he had chosen to turn his ring 
on his finger and call up the Djinns and the 
Afrits they would have magicked all those 
aine hundred and ninety-nine quarrelsome 
wives into white mules of the desert or grey- 
hounds or pomegranate seeds; but Sulei- 
tnan-bin-Daoud thought that that would be 


232 


JUST SO STORIES 

showing off. So, when they quarrelled too 
much, he only walked by himself in one part 
of the beautiful Palace gardens and wished he 
had never been born. 

One day, when they had quarrelled for 
three weeks — all nine hundred and ninety- 
nine wives together — Suleiman-bin-Daoud 
w r ent out for peace and quiet as usual; and 
among the orange trees he met Balkis the 
Most Beautiful, very sorrowful because Sulei- 
man-bin-Daoud was so worried. And she 
said to him, “ O my Lord and Light of my Eyes 
turn the ring upon your finger and show these 
Queens of Egypt and Mesopotamia and Persia 
and China that you are the great and terrible 
King.’ 7 But Suleiman-bin-Daoud shook his 
head and said, “O my Lady and Delight of 
my Life, remember the Animal that came out 
of the sea and made me ashamed before all the 
animals in all the world because I showed off. 
Now, if I showed off before these Queens of 
Persia and Egypt and Abyssinia and China, 
merely because they worry me, I might be 
made even more ashamed than I have been. 7 7 

And Balkis the Most Beautiful said, “0 
my Lord and Treasure of my Soul, what will 
you do? 77 


JUST SO STORIES 


233 


And Suleiman-bin-Daoud said, “O my 
Lady and Content of my Heart, I shall con- 
tinue to endure my fate at the hands of these 
nine hundred and ninety-nine Queens who 
vex me with their continual quarrelling.” 

So he went on between the lilies and the 
loquats and the roses and the cannas and the 
heavy-scented ginger-plants that grew in the 
garden, till he came to the great camphor-tree 
that was called the Camphor Tree of Suleiman- 
bin-Daoud. But Balkis hid among the 
tall irises and the spotted bamboos and the 
red lilies behind the camphor-tree, so as 
to be near her own true love, Suleiman-bin- 
Daoud. 

Presently two Butterflies flew under the 
tree, quarrelling. 

Suleiman-bin-Daoud heard one say to the 
other, “ I wonder at your presumption in 
talking like this to me. Don’t you know 
that if I stamped with my foot all Sulei- 
man-bin-Daoud ’s Palace and this garden 
here would immediately vanish in a clap of 
thunder.” 

Then Suleiman-bin-Daoud forgot his nine 
hundred and ninety-nine bothersome wives 
and laughed, till the camphor- tree shook, at 


234 


JUST SO STORIES 

the Butterfly’s boast. And he held out his 
finger and said, “Little man, come here.” 

The Butterfly was dreadfully frightened, 
but he managed to fly up to the hand of 
Suleiman-bin-Daoud, and clung there, fan- 
ning himself. Suleiman-bin-Daoud bent his 
head and whispered very softly, “ Little man 
you know that all your stamping would n’t 
bend one blade of grass. What made you 
tell that awful fib to your wife? — for doubt- 
less she is your wife.” 

The Butterfly looked at Suleiman-bin- 
Daoud and saw the most wise King’s eye 
twinkle like stars on a frosty night, and he 
picked up his courage with both wings, and 
he put his head on one side and said, “ O King, 
live for ever. She is my wife ; and you know 
what wives are like.” 

Suleiman-bin-Daoud smiled in his beard 
and said, “ Yes, I know, little brother.” 

“One must keep them in order somehow,” 
said the Butterfly, “and she has been quar- 
relling with me all the morning. I said that 
to quiet her.” 

And Suleiman-bin-Daoud said, “May it 
quiet her. Go back to your wife, little brother 
and let me hear what you say.” 


JUST SO STORIES 


235 


Back flew the Butterfly to his wife, who was 
all of a twitter behind a leaf, and she said, 
“He heard you! Suleiman-bin-Daoud him- 
self heard you!” 

“Heard me!” said the Butterfly. “Of 
course he did. I meant him to hear me.” 

“And what did he say? Oh, what did he 
say?” 

“Well,” said the Butterfly, fanning him- 
self most importantly, “between you and me, 
my dear — of course I don’t blame him, 
because his Palace must have cost a great 
deal and the oranges are just ripening — he 
asked me not to stamp, and I promised I 
would n’t.” 

“Gracious!” said his wife, and sat quite 
quiet; but Suleiman-bin-Daoud laughed till 
the tears ran down his face at the impudence 
of the bad little Butterfly. 

Balkis the Most Beautiful stood up behind 
the tree among the red lilies and smiled to 
herself, for she had heard all this talk. She 
thought, “If I am wise I can yet save my 
Lord from the persecutions of these quarrel- 
some Queens,” and she held out her finger and 
whispered softly to the Butterfly’s Wife, 
“Little woman, come here.” Up flew the 


236 


JUST SO STORIES 

Butterfly’s Wife, very frightened,and clung to 
Balkis’s white hand. 

Balkis bent her beautiful head down and 
whispered, “Little woman, do you believe 
what your husband has just said?” 

The Butterfly’s Wife looked at Balkis, and 
saw the most beautiful Queen’s eyes shining 
like deep pools with starlight on them, and 
she picked up her courage with both wings and 
said, “O Queen, be lovely for ever. You 
know what men-folk are like.” 

And the Queen Balkis, the Wise Balkis of 
Sheba, put her hand to her lips to hide a 
smile and said, “Little sister, / know.” 

“They get angry,” said the Butterfly’s 
Wife, fanning herself quickly, “over noth- 
ing at all, but we must humour them, O 
Queen. They never mean half they say. If 
it pleases my husband to believe that I 
believe he can make Suleiman-bin-Daoud’s 
Palace disappear by stamping his foot, I ’m 
sure I don’t care. He ’ll forget all about it 
to-morrow.” 

“Little sister,” said Balkis, “you are quite 
right ; but next time he begins to boast, take 
him at his word. Ask him to stamp, and 
see what will happen. We know what men- 


JUST SO STORIES 


2 37 

folk are like, don’t we ? He 11 be very much 
ashamed.” 

Away flew the Butterfly’s Wife to her 
husband, and in five minutes they were 
quarrelling worse than ever. 

“Remember!” said the Butterfly. “Re- 
member what I can do if I stamp my foot.” 

“I don’t believe you one little bit,” said 
the Butterfly’s Wife. “ I should very much 
like to see it done. Suppose you stamp 
now.” 

“I promised Suleiman-bin-Daoud that I 
wouldn’t,” said the Butterfly, “and I don’t 
want to break my promise.” 

“It wouldn’t matter if you did,” said his 
wife. “You could n’t bend a blade of grass 
with your stamping. I dare you to do it,” 
she said. “Stamp! Stamp! Stamp!” 

Suleiman-bin-Daoud, sitting under the cam- 
phor-tree, heard every word of this, and he 
laughed as he had never laughed in his life 
before. He forgot all about his Queens; he 
forgot all about the Animal that came out of 
the sea; he forgot about showing off. He 
just laughed with joy, and Balkis, on the other 
side of the tree, smiled because her own true 
love was so joyful. 


238 


JUST SO STORIES 

Presently the Butterfly, very hot and puffy, 
came whirling back under the shadow of the 
camphor-tree and said to Suleiman, “She 
wants me to stamp! She wants to see what 
will happen 0 Suleiman-bin-Daoud ! You 
know I can’t do it, and now she ’ll never 
believe a word I say. She ’ll laugh at me to 
the end of my days!” 

“No, little brother,” said Suleiman-bin- 
Daoud, “she will never laugh at you again,” 
and he turned the ring on his finger — just for 
the little Butterfly’s sake, not for the sake of 
showing off — and, lo and behold, four huge 
Djinns came out of the earth! 

“Slaves,” said Suleiman-bin-Daoud, “when 
this gentleman on my finger ” (that was where 
the impudent Butterfly was sitting) “stamps 
his left front forefoot you will make my Palace 
and these gardens disappear in a clap of thun- 
der. When he stamps again you will bring 
them back carefully.” 

“Now, little brother,” he said, “go back to 
your wife and stamp all you ’ve a mind to.” 

Away flew the Butterfly to his w 7 ife, who 
was crying, “ I dare you to do it ! I dare you 
to do it! Stamp! Stamp now! Stamp!” 
Balkis saw the four vast Djinns stoop down to 


JUST SO STORIES 


2 39 


the four corners of the gardens with the Palace 
in the middle, and she clapped her hands 
softly and said, “At last Suleiman-bin-Daoud 
will do for the sake of a Butterfly what he 
ought to have done long ago for his own sake 
and the quarrelsome Queens will be fright- 
ened r 

Then the Butterfly stamped. The Djinns 
jerked the Palace and the gardens a thousand 
miles into the air: there was a most awful 
thunder-clap, and everything grew inky-black. 
The Butterfly’s Wife fluttered about in the 
dark, crying, “Oh, I’ll be good! I’m so 
sorry I spoke. Only bring the gardens back, 
my dear darling husband and I ’ll never 
contradict again.” 

The Butterfly was nearly as frightened as 
his wife, and Suleiman-bin-Daoud laughed 
so much that it was several minutes before he 
found breath enough to whisper to the Butter- 
fly, “Stamp again, little brother. Give me 
back my Palace, most great magician.” 

“Yes, give him back his Palace,” said the 
Butterfly’s Wife, still flying about in the dark 
like a moth. “Give him back his Palace, and 
don’t let ’s have any more horrid magic.” 

“Well, my dear,” said the Butterfly as 


This is the picture of the four gull-winged Djinns 
lifting up Suleiman-bin-Daoud’s Palace the very 
minute after the Butterfly had stamped. The Palace 
and the gardens and everything came up in one piece 
like a board, and they left a big hole in the ground all 
full of dust and smoke. If you look in the corner, 
close to the thing that looks like a lion, you will see 
Suleiman-bin-Daoud with his magic stick and the 
two Butterflies behind him. The thing that looks 
like a lion is really a lion carved in stone, and the 
thing that looks like a milk-can is really a piece 
of a temple or a house or something. Suleiman- 
bin-Daoud stood there so as to be out of the way 
of the dust and the smoke when the Djinns lifted 
up the Palace. I don’t know the Djinns’ names. 
They were servants of Suleiman-bin-Daoud’s magic 
ring, and they changed about every day. They 
were just common gull-winged Djinns. 

The thing at the bottom is a picture of a very 
friendly Djinn called Akraig. He used to feed the 
little fishes in the sea three times a day, and his 
wings were made of pure copper. I put him in to 
show you what a nice Djinn is like. He did not 
help to lift the Palace. He was busy feeding the 
little fishes in the Arabian Sea when it happened. 


240 



241 




JUST SO STORIES 


243 


bravely as he could, “ you see what your nag- 
ging has led to. Of course it does n’t make 
any difference to me — I ’m used to this kind 
of thing — but as a favour to you and to 
Suleiman-bin-Daoud I don't mind putting 
things right." 

So he stamped once more, and that instant 
the Djinns let down the Palace and the gar- 
dens, without even a bump. The sun shone 
on the dark-green orange leaves; the foun- 
tains played among the pink Egyptian lilies; 
the birds went on singing, and the Butterfly’s 
Wife lay on her side under the camphor-tree 
waggling her wings and panting, ‘‘Oh, I’ll 
be good! I ’ll be good!’’ 

Suleiman-bin-Daoud could hardly speak 
for laughing. He leaned back all weak and 
hiccoughy, and shook his finger at the Butter- 
fly and said, “O great wizard, what is the 
sense of returning to me my Palace if at the 
same time you slay me with mirth!’’ 

Then came a terrible noise, for all the nine 
hundred and ninety-nine Queens ran out of 
the Palace shrieking and shouting and calling 
for their babies. They hurried down the 
great marble steps below the fountain, one 
hunted abreast, and the Most Wise Balkis 


244 


JUST SO STORIES 

went statelily forward to meet them and said 
“What is your trouble, O Queens ?” 

They stood on the marble steps one hundred 
abreast and shouted, “ What is our trouble? 
We were living peacefully in our golden 
palace, as is our custom, when upon a sudden 
the Palace disappeared, and we were left sit- 
ting in a thick and noisome darkness, and it 
thundered, and Djinns and Afrits moved about 
in the darkness ! That is our trouble, O Head 
Queen, and we are most extremely troubled on 
account of that trouble, for it was a trouble- 
some trouble, unlike any trouble we have 
known.” 

Then Balkis the Most Beautiful Queen — 
Suleiman-bin-Daoud’s Very Best Beloved — 
Queen that was of Sheba and Sabie and the 
Rivers of the Gold of the South — from the 
Desert of Zinn to the Towers of Zimbabwe — 
Balkis, almost as wise as the Most Wise Sulei- 
man-bin-Daoud himself, said, “ It is nothing, 
O Queens! A Butterfly has made complaint 
against his wife because she quarrelled with 
him, and it has pleased our Lord Suleiman- 
bin-Daoud to teach her a lesson in low-speak- 
ing and humbleness, for that is counted a 
virtue among the wives of the butterflies.” 


245 


JUST SO STORIES 

Then up and spoke an Egyptian Queen — 
the daughter of a Pharaoh — and she said, 
“Our Palace cannot be plucked up by the 
roots like a leek for the sake of a little insect. 
No! Suleiman-bin-Daoud must be dead, and 
what we heard and saw was the earth thun- 
dering and darkening at the news/’ 

Then Balkis beckoned that bold Queen 
without looking at her, and said to her and to 
the others, “Come and see.” 

They came down the marble steps, one 
hundred abreast, and beneath his camphor- 
tree, still weak with laughing, they saw the 
Most Wise King Suleiman-bin-Daoud rocking 
back and forth with a Butterfly on either 
hand, and they heard him say, “ O wife of my 
brother in the air, remember after this, to 
please your husband in all things, lest he be 
provoked to stamp his foot yet again; for he 
has said that he is used to this magic, and he 
is most eminently a great magician — one 
who steals away the very Palace of Suleiman- 
bin-Daoud himself. Go in peace, little folk!” 
And he kissed them on the wings, and they 
flew away. 

Then all the Queens except Balkis — the 
Most Beautiful and Splendid Balkis, who 


246 JUST SO STORIES 

stood apart smiling — fell flat on their faces, 
for they said, “If these things are done when 
a Butterfly is displeased with his wife, what 
shall be done to us who have vexed our King 
with our loud-speaking and open quarrelling 
through many days?” 

Then they put their veils over their heads, 
and they put their hands over their mouths 
and they tiptoed back to the Palace most 
mousy-quiet. 

Then Balkis — the Most Beautiful and 
Excellent Balkis — went forward through the 
red lilies into the shade of the camphor-tree 
and laid her hand upon Suleiman-bin-Daoud ’s 
shoulder and said, “O my Lord and Treasure 
of my Soul, rejoice, for we have taught the 
Queens of Egypt and Ethiopia and Abyssinia 
and Persia and India and China with a great 
and a memorable teaching.” 

And Suleiman-bin-Daoud, still looking after 
the Butterflies where they played in the sun- 
light, said, “O my Lady and Jewel of my 
Felicity, when did this happen? For I have 
been jesting with a Butterfly ever since I came 
into the garden.” And he told Balkis what 
he had done. 

Balkis — the Tender and Most Lovely 


JUST SO STORIES 


247 


Balkis — said, “ O my Lord and Regent of 
my Existence, I hid behind the camphor-tree 
and saw it all. It was I who told the Butter- 
fly’s Wife to ask the Butterfly to stamp, be- 
cause I hoped that for the sake of the jest my 
Lord would make some great magic and that 
the Queens would see it and be frightened.” 
And she told him what the Queens had said 
and seen and thought. 

Then Suleiman-bin-Daoud rose up from 
his seat under the camphor-tree, and stretched 
his arms and rejoiced and said, “O my Lady 
and Sweetener of my Days, know that if I 
had made a magic against my Queens for the 
sake of pride or anger, as I made that feast 
for all the animals, I should certainly have 
been put to shame. But by means of your 
wisdom I made the magic for the sake of a jest 
and for the sake of a little Butterfly, and — 
behold — it has also delivered me from the 
vexations of my vexatious wives! Tell me, 
therefore, 0 my Lady and Heart of my Heart, 
how did you come to be so wise?” 

And Balkis the Queen, beautiful and tall, 
looked up into Suleiman-bin-Daoud ’s eyes 
and put her head a little on one side, just 
like the Butterfly, and said, “First, 0 my 


248 JUST SO STORIES 

Lord, because I loved you; and secondly, 
O my Lord, because I know what women- 
folk are.” 

Then they went up to the Palace and lived 
happily ever afterwards. 

But was n't it clever of Balkis? 


There was never a Queen like Balkis, 
From here to the wide world’s end; 

But Balkis talked to a butterfly 
As you would talk to a friend. 

There was never a King like Solomon, 
Not since the world began; 

But Solomon talked to a butterfly 
As a man would talk to a man. 

She was Queen of Sabaea — 

And he was Asia’s Lord — 

But they both of ’em talked to butterflie* 
When they took their walks abroad ! 


Jtr 


249 


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